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THE 
SHOE INDUSTRY 



BY 

FREDERICK J. ALLEN, A.M. 

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, BUREAU OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

LECTURER ON VOCATIONAL G DDANCE 

IN BOSTON UNIVERSITY 

PRESIDENT, NEW ENGLAND VOCATIONAL GUHJANCE 

ASSOCIATION 




NEW YORK 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1922 






Copyright, 1922, 

BY 
FREDERICK J. ALLEN 



i 



& 



PRINTED IN U.S.A. 



NOV 29 '22 



©C!.A6ii2i28 

-Wo I 



PREFACE 

This book is the story of a great and highly organized 
industry. It is the result of careful investigation and 
extensive supplementary study extending over a period of 
six years. Representative factories, manufacturing all 
varieties of boots and shoes, have been studied in every 
department and operation, with an adequate length of 
time given to each. Information has been secured from 
manufacturers, officials, department heads, and opera- 
tives in every grade of service and from the foremost 
authorities in the shoe and leather world. The organi- 
zation of the industry and the processes of shoemaking 
are herein described as actually observed by the author 
who began this work as investigator of occupations for 
the Vocation Bureau of Boston, which has now become 
the Bureau of Vocational Guidance of Harvard Uni- 
versity. 

Thus the book has been built up out of the industry 
itself. All available published material, both domestic 
and foreign, has been examined, but this volume is unique 
as an original study. Moreover, the manuscript has been 
read critically and approved by many authorities in the. 
industry, both by those who have given information and 
by others, and by economists and labor union officials. 

The conditions and methods presented are those that 
are general and prevailing in this country. 

The great natural divisions of the industry are treated 
in their logical order, from its historical setting and the 
development of shoe machinery to the distribution of the 
finished product of the factory. Employment conditions 



iv PREFACE 

and training in the industry are treated at length and 
valuable supplementary material is added. Chapters 
upon shoe repairing and shoe findings are included as 
these have become divisions of consequence in the great 
field of shoe manufacture. Important statistical material 
is given throughout the chapters. An explanation of the 
terms used in shoemaking is made the final chapter, for 
consultation by the reader as may be found necessary. 
Numerous charts and diagrams, and the latest illustra- 
tions of buildings, equipment, departments, machinery, 
methods, social service, and business enterprise are in- 
cluded. 

The book graphically presents extensive inside infor- 
mation gathered for permanent use. 

It is the purpose of this study to give the nature, 
history, magnitude, operations and processes, employment 
opportunities and demands, earnings, and the probable 
future of the industry, for those already in it, for other 
persons, and their advisers and teachers, who may be 
considering employment in this field of manufacture, and 
for all students of industry. 

Thanks are due and heartily accorded to the hundreds 
of persons in the industry who have freely given infor- 
mation and suggestion in the course of this study. Grate- 
ful acknowledgment is made for special help to the 
following companies: 

The United Shoe Machinery Corporation. 

William H. McElwain Company. 

Thomas G. Plant Company. 

George E. Keith Company. 

Endicott Johnson Company. 

United Shoe Repairing Machine Company. 



PREFACE v 

Special acknowledgment is here given also to: 

Mr. Thomas F. Anderson, Secretary of the New England 
Shoe and Leather Association, whose generous coopera- 
tion and wise counsel have been of great assistance 
from the beginning. 

Mr. Charles T. Cahill and Mr. John B. Hadaway, of the 
United Shoe Machinery Corporation, who have contrib- 
uted invaluable information upon shoe machinery. . 

Mr. Arthur L. Evans, Editor-in-Chief of the Retail Shoe 
Salesman's Institute, who has furnished valuable 
material on the development of shoe machinery. 

Mr. W. S. Dennison, Publicity Manager of Rice and 
Hutchins, Inc., who has contributed a statement upon 
shoe advertising. 

Mr. A. H. Lockwood, Editor of the Shoe and Leather 
Reporter, who has provided photographs for the 
illustrations of shoe and leather fair exhibits. 

Frederick J. Allen 

Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts 

January, 1922 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface iii 

A Modern Shoe Factory: Introductory xxix 

Chart of Organization in the Shoe Industry xxxvii 

CHAPTER I 
Historical Sketch 

Ancient and Mediaeval Shoes 3 

A Recent Discovery of Ancient Shoes 4 

The London Cordwainers' Company 4 

The Moccasin of the American Indian 5 

The First American Shoemakers 5 

An Indenture Paper 6 

The Value of Shoes in Colonial Times 9 

Ancient Shoe Laws io 

The Itinerant Shoemaker 12 

The First Shoe Shops 12 

A Shop of a Century Ago 14 

Ebenezer Breed and the Shoe Tariff 16 

The First Shoe Factories 17 

A Division of Labor in the Factory: "Teams" and "Gangs" 17 

A Quotation on the " Contract System" 19 

The Attitude of Early Shoemakers toward the Shoe Factory 2 1 

Organization in the Factory System 21 

Specialists 22 

The Magnitude of the Industry Today 23 

Shoe and Leather Fairs 27 

The Development of Advertising in the Shoe Industry 28 

Shoe and Leather and Allied Associations 32 

National Shoe and Leather Associations 32 

Boots and Shoes — Value of Products for Leading States: 

1914 and 1909 33 

Table I. — Summary for Leading Cities: 1914, 1909, and 

1904 34 

Scope of the Shoe Industry 34 

Table II. — General Statistics. Boots and Shoes: 1879 to 

1914 35 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Historical Sketch — Continued 

Scope of the Boot and Shoe Cut Stock Industry 36 

Table III. — General Statistics — Boot and Shoe Cut Stock: 

1879-1914 37 

Table IV. — Exports of Boots and Shoes from the United 
States During the Fiscal Years June 30, 1912, 1913, and 
1 9 14, as Reported by the Bureau of Foreign and Do- 
mestic Commerce, Department of Commerce 38 

Table V. — Total Exports of Shoes from the United 
States for the Month of May, 1920 and 1919, and for 
Eleven-Month Periods Ending with May, 1920, 1919, 

and 1918 40 

CHAPTER II 
Shoe Machinery 

The Invention of Shoe Machinery 41 

Three Stages of Development 42 

The Wooden Peg: 1815 43 

The Rolling Machine: 1845 44 

The Howe Sewing Machine: 1852 45 

The McKay Sewing Machine: 1858 45 

The Goodyear Welt Machine: 1862-1875 47 

Edge-Trimming and Heel-Trimming Machines: 1877 48 

The Lasting Machine: 1883 48 

The Pulling-Over Machine 52 

Joseph L. Joyce 52 

Power in Shoe Manufacture S3 

Operating a Complicated Machine 53 

The Leasing System 53 

The Care of Machinery 55 

The Standardization of Machinery ', 56 

The Development of Shoe Machinery 58 

CHAPTER III 
Last-Making 

The Shaping of the Last 66 

Last Material 67 

Hand Last-Making 68 

Modern Last-Making 68 



CONTENTS ix 

PAGE 

Last-Making — Continued 

The Model Last 70 

The Use of the Last-Lathe 70 

Devices for Reducing Last in Use 71 

The Storage of Lasts 72 

CHAPTER IV 
Pattern-Making 

The Pattern Designer 74 

The Pattern Model 76 

The Trial Shoe 77 

The Number of Patterns to a Shoe 77 

Pattern Material 77 

Making Patterns 78 

The Standardization of Lasts and Patterns 78 

The Storage of Patterns 79 

Positions in the Pattern-Making Department 79 

The Pattern Maker 79 

The Price of Patterns 80 

CHAPTER V 
Leather 

Its Nature 82 

Tanning 82 

American Leather Manufacturing 84 

The Increasing Shortage of Leather 85 

Leather Substitutes 85 

The Tannery Divisions of Hides and Skins 87 

A Side of Leather 88 

Divisions of Leather in Shoe Manufacture 88 

The Varieties of Upper Leather 90 

Kid 90 

Calfskin. 92 

Side Leather 94 

Sheepskin 94 

Coltskin 94 

Sole Leather 94 

The Cut-Sole Industry 98 



x CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Leather — Continued 

Table VI. — General Statistics. Leather and its Finished 

Products: 1904 to 1914 100 

Leather, Tanned, Curried, and Finished — Value of Prod- 
ucts for Leading States: 1914 and 1909 101 

Table VII. — Imports of Hides and Skins (Except Fur Skins) 
into the United States During the Fiscal Years Ending 
June 30, 1913 and 1914, by Principal Countries, as Re- 
ported by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce 102 

CHAPTER VI 

The Departments oe Shoe Manfacture 

The Business Departments 104 

The Factory Offices 105 

The Executive Officers 106 

The General Offices 106 

Chart of the Business Departments of Shoe Manufacture. . . 106 

Chart of Factory Management 107 

Factory Service and Office Service ; 108 

The Factory Departments 108 

Chart of the Factory Departments 109 

The Modern Shoe Factory no 

The Typical Factory 112 

CHAPTER VII 

Methods in Shoe Manueacture 

The Chief Methods 117 

Illustrations of Methods Now in Use 118 

The Turned Shoe 118 

Cross Section of a Goodyear Welt Shoe 119 

Cross Section of a McKay Sewed Shoe 120 

Cross Section of a Standard Screwed Shoe 121 

Cross Section of a Pegged Shoe 122 

The Lace Shoe 123 

The Different Stages in Goodyear Welt Manufacture 123 

Production by Methods of Manufacture 124 

Table VIII. — Boots, Shoes, and Slippers Produced in the 

United States by Methods of Manufacture: 1914 and 1909 127 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

Methods in Shoe Manufacture — Continued 
Table IX. — Boots, Shoes, and Slippers Produced by 
Methods of Manufacture in the Leading States: 1914 

and 1909 128 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Upper Leather Department 

The Importance of Detail in Shoe Manufacture 129 

Chart of the Upper Leather Department 131 

Action Upon Receipt of an Order 132 

The Day Sheet 134 

A Typical Shoe Tag 134 

A Typical Shoe Factory Day Sheet 135 

The Upper Leather Room 136 

Measuring Upper Leather 136 

The Leather Sorter 136 

The Lining Sorter 138 

The Positions in a Sorting Department 138 

The Lining and Cloth-Cutting Section 139 

Positions in the Lining and Cloth-Cutting Section 140 

The Cutting Room 140 

The Hand Cutter 141 

The Clicking Machine 144 

The Counting, Marking, and Skiving Department 146 

Skiving 147 

Nicking 148 

Dieing Out Straps 148 

Positions in the Skiving Department 148 

Assembling Department 148 

Positions in the Assembling Department 149 

Time and Pay Statistics in the Cutting Department 149 

Table X. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, in the United States, by Years, 

1907 to 1918. — Cutting Department 151 

Table XI. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 1918. — Cutting 

Department 153 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX 

PAGE 

The Stitching Department 

Variations in Stitching Room Processes 155 

The Number and Divisions of the Parts to be Stitched 156 

The Divisions of This Department 157 

The Lining Department 157 

Chart of the Stitching Department 158 

Positions in the Lining Department 159 

The Tip Department 159 

Perforating 161 

Positions in the Tip Department 161 

The Closing and Staying Department 162 

Positions in the Closing and Staying Department 164 

The Foxing Department 164 

Positions in the Foxing Department 165 

The Top Stitching Department 166 

Positions in the Top Stitching Department 167 

The Button Hole Department 167 

Positions in the Button Hole Department 168 

The Vamping Department 169 

Positions in the Vamping Department 170 

The Toe Closing Department 170 

Positions in the Toe Closing Department 171 

Operating Stitching Machines 171 

Table XII. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, in the United States, by Years, 

1907 to 1918. — Fitting or Stitching Department 173 

Table XIII. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by Years, 1907 to 1908. — Fitting 

or Stitching Department 176 

Table XIV. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 1918 179 



CONTENTS xiii 
CHAPTER X 

PAGE 

The Sole Leather Department 

Its Nature 182 

The Preparation of Sole Leather Parts 182 

The Division of Bottom Stock Fitting 183 

The McKay Insole Department 183 

Positions in the McKay Insole Department 184 

The Welt Insole Department 184 

Channeling 185 

Slashing 185 

Wetting 185 

Randing 185 

Reinforced Insoles 185 

The Canvas Reinforcement 186 

Positions in the Welt Insole Department 186 

The Outer Sole Department 187 

Positions in the Outer Sole Department 188 

The Counter Department 188 

The Toe Box Department 189 

The Heel Department 189 

The Processes of Making Heels 190 

Positions in Heel Making 191 

Employees in the Sole Leather Department 191 

Table XV. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, in the United States, by Years, 

1907 to 1918. — Sole Leather Department 193 

Table XVI. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 1918. — Sole Leather 

Department 195 

CHAPTER XI 

The Making Department 

Its Nature 196 

The Lasting Department 197 

The Pulling Over Machine 198 



xiv CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Making Department — Continued 

Toe and Heel Wiping 198 

The Upper Trimming Machine 199 

Positions in the Lasting Department 200 

The Welt Bottoming Department 201 

Welting 201 

Welt Beating 201 

Sole Laying 202 

Rough Rounding 203 

Heel Seat Nailing 204 

Sole Sewing 206 

Channel Laying 206 

Leveling 206 

Welt Finishing 206 

Other Finishing Processes 207 

Positions in the Welt Bottoming Department 210 

The McKay Bottoming Department 210 

Processes Connected with the McKay Method 211 

Positions in the McKay Bottoming Department 216 

The Heeling Department 216 

Blind Nailing 218 

Slugging 218 

Heel Trimming 219 

Positions in the Heeling Department 221 

The Turned Shoe Department 221 

Lasting the Turned Shoe 221 

Positions in the Turned Shoe Department 224 

The Standard Screw, Pegged, and Nailed Departments 225 

Work in the Making Department 226 

Table XVII. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, in the United States, by Years, 

1907 to 1918. — Lasting Department 228 

Table XVIII. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 1918. — Lasting 

Department 232 

Table XIX. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 



CONTENTS xv 

PAGE 

The Making Department — Continued 

Time Weekly Earnings, in the United States, by Years, 

1907 to 1918. — Bottoming Department 235 

Table XX. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 1918. — Bottoming 
Department 241 

CHAPTER XII 

Finishing, Treeing, Packing, and Shipping 

Additional Departments 245 

Finishing 246 

The Tip Repairing Department 248 

The Treeing Department 250 

Ironing 252 

Inspecting 252 

Embossing 252 

Positions in the Treeing Department 252 

The Packing Department 253 

Positions in the Packing Room 254 

The Shipping Department 254 

Positions in the Shipping Department 256 

Table XXI. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, in the United States, by Years, 

1907 to 1918. — Finishing Department 257 

Table XXII. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 1918. — Finishing 

Department 259 

Tables XXIII. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours 
per Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, in the United States, by Years, 
1907 to 1918. — Other Employees (All Departments.). . . . 260 
Table XXIV. — Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per 
Week and Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 1918. — Other Em- 
ployees (All Departments.) 261 



xvi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIII 

PAGE 

Employment Conditons, Wages and Hours op Labor. 

The Sex Division of Employees 262 

The Division of Employees Among Departments 264 

Shoe Manufacture Highly Specialized 264 

Seasons 265 

Shoemaking a Trade 266 

Entering Upon Work in a Shoe Factory 267- 

Promotion 267 

Securing Skilled Labor " 268 

The Shoe Superintendent 269 

The Shoe Foreman 269 

The Quality Man and the Quantity Man 271 

The Efficiency Engineer 271 

The Shoe Factory Chemist 272 

Piece and Time Payment 273 

The Best Paying Processes 273 

Wages and Hours of Labor in the Shoe Industry 273 

Table XXV. — Relative Full-Time Hours per Week, Hourly 
Earnings, and Full-Time Weekly Earnings, from 1910 

to 1918, in the Principal Occupations 276 

Table XXVI. — Average Full-Time Hours, Hours Actually 
Worked, Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Amounts 

Actually Earned During One Week, 1918 280 

Variation in Number of Employees, Total Pay Rolls, and 

Bi-Weekly Earnings per Employee 282 

Sex and Age Distribution of Wage Earners in the United 

States by Leading Industries: 1909 282 

Table XXVII. — Sex and Age Distribution by Leading Indus- 
tries: 1909 284 

The Monotony of Shoemaking 286 

Quotation upon Efforts in Some Factories to Lessen 

Monotony 289 

Social Service in the Shoe Factory 290 

Quotation from a Government Study of Social Service 291 

General Sanitary Conditions Observed in Boot and Shoe 

Factories 294 

The Employment of Handicapped Men in the Shoe Industry 299 



CONTENTS xvii 
CHAPTER XIV 

PAGE 

Training in the Shoe Industry 

Schools and Courses in Shoemaking 306 

Quotation from a Report upon Industrial Education in Shoe 

Manufacture 307 

The Shoe and Leather Course of the Boston Continuation 

School 311 

The Lynn Independent Industrial Shoemaking School 314 

Course of Study — Boys 316 

Upper Leather Cutting Department 316 

Upper Leather Fitting Department 318 

Sole Leather Department 319 

Lasting Department 320 

Making and Finishing Department 322 

Packing and Shipping Department 323 

Course of Study — Girls 324 

Upper Leather Fitting Department 324 

Fitting, Packing, and Office Departments 325 

The Plan of the United States Training Service 327 

Purpose of Training Program 327 

Conditions in Shoe Industry 327 

Testing New Applicants 328 

Training New Help 328 

Upgrading Employees 328 

Types of Training Suitable 329 

Training According to Factory Requirements 329 

Related Instruction 330 

Departmental Relations 331 

Cooperation of Employees 331 

The Instruction Staff 332 

Requirements High for Director 332 

Qualifications 332 

Trade Knowledge Essential for Instructors 333 

How to Proceed with Instruction 333 

Instructor's Guide 333 

Four Steps in Procedure 334 

Preparation 334 



xviii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Training in the Shoe Industry — Continued 

Value of Illustrations 335 

Presentation 335 

Repeating the Demonstration 336 

Application 337 

Helpful Suggestions 338 

Supervision 338 

What Record Shows 339 

Follow Up After Instruction 339 

Sole Leather Department 340 

How to Proceed 340 

Elementary Branches — Channeling 341 

Demonstration 342 

Outline for Instructor's Use 344 

The Retail Shoe Salesman's Institute, Boston 347 

The Training of Disabled Soldiers in the Shoe Industry 

in Foreign Countries 348 

CHAPTER XV 

The Shoe Repairing Industry 

Shoe Repairing now a Shop Industry 360 

Shoe Repairing Advanced by the War 363 

Learning Machine Shoe Repairing 365 

Earnings in the Industry 366 

Opportunities for Handicapped Men in Shoe Repairing 366 

Action by the Trade Promotion Bureau 367 

CHAPTER XVI 

The Shoe Findings Industry 

Shoe Findings Manufacture in the United States 370 

The Chief Articles Included in Shoe Findings 372 

Four Classes of Shoe Findings 373 

Each Shoe Finding a Separate Industry 374 

Women in the Industry 374 

Division of Employees in the Typical Findings Factory. . . . 375 

The Making of the Shoe Shank 376 

Diagram Showing Manufacture of Reinforced Shank 378 

Table XXVII . — General Statistics. Boot and Shoe Find- 
ings. 1879 to 1914 379 



CONTENTS xix 



CHAPTER XVII 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in ShoemakIng 

The Need of Knowing These Terms 380 

Acid-tanned 381 

Adjustment . 381 

Aloft 381 

Anatomic 381 

Arch 381 

Assembling 381 

Backstay 381 

Back Strap 381 

Bal 381 

Ball 382 

Beading 382 

Beating Out 382 

Bellows Tongue 382 

Belting 382 

Bench-Made 382 

Bend 382 

Blackball 382 

Blacking the Edge 382 

Blind Eyelet 382 

Blocking 382 

Blucher 383 

Boot 383 

Bottom Filling 383 

Bottom Finishing 383 

Bottom Scouring 383 

Box 383 

Brogan 383 

Broken Arch 383 

Brushing 383 

Buckram 383 

Buffing 383 

Button 384 

Button Fly 384 

Cabaretta 384 



xx CONTENTS 

PAGE 

An Explanation op the Tepms Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

Calfskin 384 

Calking Machine 384 

Carton 384 

Case 384 

Channel 385 

Channel Screwed 385 

Channel Stitched 385 

Channel Turning 385 

Chrome-tanned 385 

Clicking . 385 

Closing On 385 

Collar 385 

Colonial 385 

Combination Last 385 

Congress Gaiter 385 

Copper Toe 385 

Counter 385 

Cravenette : 386 

Creasing Vamp 886 

Crimping 386 

Crop 386 

Cushion Sole 386 

Cushion-Made 386 

Cut-off Vamp 386 

Dieing or Dinking 386 

Dom Pedro 386 

Edge Setting 386 

Dressing 386 

Edge Trimming 386 

Embossing 386 

Eyelet '. 386 

Fabric 386 

Facing 387 

Fair Stitch 387 

Filler 387 

Finding : 387 

Finish 387 



CONTENTS xxi 

PAGE 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

Fitting 387 

Fitting Room 387 

Form 387 

Foxing 387 

French Size Marking 388 

Gaiter 388 

Gem Insoles 388 

Golf Shoe 388 

Goodyear Welt 388 

Gore 388 

Grading 388 

Half-Sole 388 

Heel 388 

Heel Scouring 389 

Heel Seat 389 

Heel Shaving 389 

Hemlock tanned 389 

Inseam Trimming 389 

Insole 389 

Inspecting 389 

Ironing Uppers 389 

Lace 389 

Lace Stay 389 

Lap Stone 389 

Last 390 

Lasting 390 

Leveling 390 

Lift 390 

Lining 390 

Low-cut 390 

McKay Sewed 390 

Measurement 390 

Moulding 390 

Naumkeaging 390 

Oak-tanned 390 

Oxford 391 

Pasted Counter 391 



xxii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

Pattern 391 

Pegging 391 

Perforating 391 

Polish 391 

Pressing 391 

Pulling Lasts 391 

Pulling Over 391 

Pump 391 

Quarter 391 

Rand 391 

Relasting 391 

Repairing 391 

Rolling 391 

Rough Rounding 392 

Royalties 392 

Rubber Cement 392 

Rubber Shoes 392 

Sample 392 

Sandal 392 

Screw Fastened 392 

Shank 392 

Shank Burnishing 392 

Shanking Out 392 

Size 393 

Skiving 393 

Slipper 393 

Slugging • 393 

Sneaker 393 

Sock Lining 393 

Soft Tips 393 

Soles and Sole Leather 393 

Sole Laying 393 

Sorting 393 

Spat 393 

Split 393 

Spring 393 

Stamping 393 



CONTENTS xxiii 

PAGE 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

' Stay 394 

Stitch Separating 394 

Stitched Aloft 394 

Stock Keeping 394 

Stripping 394 

Style 394 

Tan 394 

Tanning 394 

Tap 394 

Tempering . 394 

Tip 394 

Tongue 395 

Top 395 

Top Facing 395 

Top Lift 395 

Top Stitching 395 

Treeing 395 

Trimming Cutting 395 

Turned Shoe 395 

Turnover 395 

Upper 395 

Vamp 395 

Vamping 395 

Viscolizing 395 

Welt 395 

Welt Beating 396 

Welting 396 

Wheeling 396 

Width 396 

Shoe and Leather Bibliography 397 

Shoe and Leather Journals 401 

Alphabetical Index 403 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Factory of the Thomas G. Plant Company, 

Boston Frontispiece 

Central Plant of the W. H. McElwain Company, 

Manchester, N. H xiii 

Plant of the Geo. E. Keith Company, Brockton, 

Mass xvii 

An Old Time Shoemaker 7 

The Hand Worker in the Modern Factory, Re- 
pairing Shoes Injured in Passage Through 

Factory Processes n 

An Old Time Shoe Shop Placed Beside a Modern 

Factory 15 

Interior of a Shop in the Civil War Period 18 

A Modern Interior 18 

Shipping Room of Endicott Johnson & Company, 

Endicott, N. Y 22 

Operating the Rex Pulling-Over Machine 42 

The McKay Sewing Machine Today 46 

Operating the Goodyear Welt and Turn Shoe 

Machine 47 

Operating the Edge Trimming Machine 49 

Operating the Welt Lasting Machine 51 

Plant of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, 

Beverly, Mass 54 

Facsimiles of Early Royalty Stamps 56 

The Last Lathe 69 

XXV 



xxvi ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Last Storage Room of the Shoe Factory 72 

Pattern Standard Showing Heel Pitch, and Separate 

Patterns of Upper Parts 75 

Operators at Shaving Machines, Upper Leather 

Tannery, W. H. McElwain Company 83 

A Side of Leather Divided as to Quality 89 

Embossing Upper Leather, Upper Leather Tannery, 

W. H. McElwain Company, Manchester, N. H. 91 
Beam House, Where Hides are Prepared for 

Tanning 95 

Tan Yard, Where They are Tanned in Vats of 

Liquor 95 

The Cut-Sole Room in the Shoe Factory, 98 

Preparing Cartons in the Box Factory, W. H. 

McElwain Company, Manchester, N. H in 

A Modern Interior Showing a Row of Machines 

Placed by the Windows 113 

A Modern Interior Showing Overhead Light 114 

A Typical Modern Shoe Factory 115 

Interior of a Modern Shoe Factory, Showing Light 

Provision, with Steel Sash, Heating System, 

and Concrete Floor 116 

Cross Section of a Goodyear Welt Shoe 119 

Cross Section of a McKay Sewed Shoe 120 

Cross Section of a Standard Screwed Shoe 121 

Cross Section of a Pegged Shoe 122 

A Goodyear Welt Shoe in the Different Stages of 

Manufacture 125 

Hand Cutters at Work, Thomas G. Plant Company, 

Boston, Mass - 129 

Upper Leather Stock-Sorting Department, W. H. 

McElwain Company, Manchester, N. H 137 

Cutting Shoe Trimming Parts, Upper Leather 

Supply Factory, No. 1 Building, Central Plant, 

Manchester, N. H 141 



ILLUSTRATIONS xxvii 

PAGE 

A Skin Showing How Patterns are Placed in 

Cutting 143 

Upper Leather Cutting Room, Showing Clicking 
Machine, W. H. McElwain Company, Man- 
chester, N. H 145 

Operating the Skiving Machine 147 

A Division of the Stitching Room 156 

Operating the Tip Punching Machine 160 

Lacing Uppers on the Ensign Lacing Machine .... 170 

Bed Lasting Machine No. 5 197 

Rex Pulling-Over Machine 199 

Operating the Goodyear Universal Inseam Trim- 
ming Machine 200 

Operating the Goodyear Improved Twin Sole Lay- 
ing Machine 202 

Goodyear Welt and Turn Shoe Machine Model K 203 
Goodyear Universal Rounding and Channeling 

Machine. Model E 204 

Operating the Goodyear Heel Seat Rounding 

Machine 205 

Goodyear Outsole Rapid Lockstitch Machine .... 207 

Goodyear Automatic Sole Leveling Machine 208 

Operating the Hadaway Stitch Separating Machine 209 

Operating the Twin Edge Setting Machine 211 

Operating the Top Piece Sanding Machine 212 

Operating the Naumkeag Buffing Machine 213 

Operating the Goodyear Stitching Machine 214 

Nailing Heel Seat 215 

Operating the Channel Cementing Machine .... 217 

The Heeling Room of the Making Department . . 218 
McKay Automatic Heel Loading and Attaching 

Machine 219 

Operating the Universal Slugging Machine 220 

Operating the Ultima Heel Trimming Machine . . 222 

Operating the Imperial Heel Breasting Machine 223 



xxviii ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Operating the Expedite Heel Finishing Machine . . 225 
Buffing Machines Placed Longitudinally with 

Building 245 

Operating the Buffing Machine 247 

Climax Finishing Shaft 249 

Stitch and Upper Cleaning Machine 251 

Operating the Stamping Machine 253 

Shipping Floor, Central Plant, W. H. McElwain 

Company, Manchester, N. H 255 

Shoe Workers of the Thomas G. Plant Company, 

Boston, Mass 263 

The First Factory of Thomas G. Plant 265 

Employees' Club House, George E. Keith Com- 
pany, Brockton, Mass 287 

"Ideal Home," Library and Clubrooms, Endicott, 

Johnson and Company, Endicott, N. Y 289 

Men's Recreation Room, Thomas G. Plant Com- 
pany, Boston, Mass 291 

Dancing Hall, Thomas G. Plant Company, Boston, 

Mass 293 

Factory Hospital, United Shoe Machinery Corpora- 
tion, Beverly, Mass 295 

Wash Room, United Shoe Machinery Corporation, 

Beverly, Mass 296 

Spirit and Loyalty 298 

The Class of New Americans, All Endicott John- 
son Workers, Studying that They may Become 

Citizens 318 

Shop of the Philadelphia Shoe Repairing Company, 

Philadelphia, Pa 361 

Men Working at a Motor-Drive Set of Shoe Re- 
pairing Machinery 362 

New Auto Shoe Repair Trucks of the U. S. Army 364 
Interior of the Shoe Repair Truck, U. S. Army . . . 367 



A MODERN SHOE FACTORY 

INTRODUCTORY 

It is a far step from the ten-by-twelve, one-story 
shoemaker's shop of the middle of the last century 
to the great concrete structure which houses the 
modern shoe factory. True, there are many wooden 
factories in our older shoe centers, but they were 
built twenty, or thirty, or forty years ago — before 
the age of steel and concrete. American shoe manu- 
facturers are now erecting the finest and largest 
shoe factories in the world, profiting by the develop- 
ments in building construction in the Old- World and 
in the New. 

The shoe manufacturer seeks a locality that is 
accessible by railway, on or near some main line of 
traffic, that he may bring in his raw materials and 
distribute the manufactured product with as little 
cost and delay as possible. It is an advertisement 
to him to be located in a well-known industrial 
center. Frequently he is granted exemption from 
local taxation as an inducement to enter a town. 

The securing of workers constitutes the greatest 
problem of the manufacturer. He seeks a com- 
munity out of which he may secure factory em- 



xxx INTRODUCTORY 

ployees, without competing with other industries to 
his disadvantage in the scale of wages. The older 
and leading shoe towns, therefore, like Lynn and 
Brockton, Mass., are essentially one-industry towns. 
The shoe factory in the large city obtains employees 
from the great number of industrial workers to be 
found there, and suffers from the mobility of labor. 
The factory in the small town or country commu- 
nity draws its workers from the rural districts and 
profits by the inertia of labor. And the large shoe 
factory continually attracts operatives who have 
learned their trade in the smaller factory. 

Let us, then, view a typical modern shoe factory in 
an industrial community. We find it upon a main 
or spur railway line, and upon one or more public 
thoroughfares, convenient to traffic and accessible to 
employees. At the rear of the building is a sizable 
park, with shade trees, flowers, shrubbery, and 
settees for employees during rest hours. A club 
house and athletic field for male employees are 
among the features which make industrial employ- 
ment attractive to workmen. All these advantages, 
with others maintained in the factory itself, con- 
tribute to the home feeling and factory pride and 
spirit of the employees. They create solidarity in 
factory life. They signify the mutual getting to- 
gether of employer and worker. They make out of 
industry a means of social and personal growth. 



INTRODUCTORY 




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xxxii INTRODUCTORY 

Turning to the factory itself, we observe its mas- 
sive, yet window-covered structure. It consists of a 
steel frame covered with concrete, the gray garb of 
modern industry. This building has the typical, 
standardized form that has been developed in the 
shoe industry. Light is the most important con- 
sideration. The width of the building is limited 
to about fifty feet, so that there may be plenty of 
light along the middle of each room. This plan 
allows ample space for the economic placing of 
machinery. In this factory no space is lost. Some 
shoe factories in European countries have but one 
story with glass roof, so that the light falls clearly 
upon all parts of the floor, thus necessitating exten- 
sive ground space. Our American building, econo- 
mizing ground space, gets light from the sides, but 
usually has a special system of windows in the roof 
for the benefit of the upper floor. 

This typical shoe factory is a single building about 
three hundred feet long and four stories in height. 
Sometimes there are wings at the ends of the main 
building of the same height and width as the main 
structure. The length varies from two hundred feet 
up to several hundred and some factory systems are 
as much as a quarter or half-mile long. Such large 
plants employ four or five thousand people, and turn 
out fifteen to twenty thousand pairs of shoes a day. 
Some large factories have seven or eight floors, but 



INTRODUCTORY xxxiii 

usually because of lack of ground space or because 
of having been built before the standard plan was 
fixed. 

The power plant is installed in a one-story 
building on one side of the factory. Steam is gener- 
ally used to generate power and furnish heat, and 
electricity for lighting purposes. In some factories 
electricity furnishes the motive power also. This 
building is equipped with an automatic alarm, freight 
and passenger elevators, stairways, and fire escapes. 
It has an extensive locker system, and the latest 
sanitary equipment throughout. An exhaust fan 
system is used to draw the dust and dirt from the 
abrasive and trimming machines used in the differ- 
ent departments. This dust material is conveyed to 
a receptacle near the power house, where it is burned 
in the furnace. 

The four-floor system of the factory is found to be 
the most convenient for the sequence of processes in 
manufacture. The four floors provide space for six 
major departments of manufacture and for the busi- 
ness offices. The sole leather department, which 
prepares the bottom parts of the shoe, occupies the 
first or basement floor. The upper leather and 
stitching departments occupy the fourth or upper 
floor, where it is always possible to obtain plenty of 
light. In these departments the leather upper parts 
and linings of the shoe are cut and sewed together 



xxxiv INTRODUCTORY 

and made ready for attaching the bottom. The 
making or bottoming department uses most of the 
third floor. Here the sole leather parts and leather 
tops and linings are brought together and the shoe 
is made ready for finishing. The finishing, packing, 
and shipping departments are upon the second floor. 
All of these divisions of the factory are described 
at length in the chapters which follow. The business 
offices are usually divided between the second and 
third floors, while the factory offices are associated 
with factory rooms when possible. 

A very large shoe manufacturing company may 
have a system of buildings grouped about a common 
center, which may be a separate administration 
building or the oldest or main factory building. In 
such a system the sole leather department usually 
occupies an entire building, preparing sole leather 
parts for the other manufacturing departments. 
Another building is usually given up entirely to 
making men's shoes, another to women's shoes, and 
so on, according to the special lines followed by the 
concern. There may also be a box factory, saw mill, 
printing plant, or other subsidiary department 
attached to the group of buildings. In some cases 
a large concern has central offices, or a central 
factory, in one locality, and the separate factories in 
other localities. 

It remains to speak of the neighborhood of the 



INTRODUCTORY 



XXXV 




xxxvi INTRODUCTORY 

shoe manufacturing plant. This neighborhood tends 
to become a factory community, as time passes. 
Shoe operatives with families wish to live near their 
work, and frequently several members of a family 
work in the same factory. Car fares then become 
an item of importance. The family accordingly 
lives near enough to the factory to walk back and 
forth and to come home for lunch at noon time. 
On the other hand the manufacturer prefers to hire 
those who live near by ; as they can the better be 
depended upon to remain steadily and permanently 
in his employ. 

A chart of organization in the shoe industry is 
here added, to give a glimpse of the activities carried 
on within the factory. 



INTRODUCTORY 



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THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



CHAPTER I 

HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Ancient and Mediaeval Shoes. The sandal was 
the first known form of footwear. It was the uni- 
versal type among all early peoples, as it is now in 
all warm countries. Pictures of ancient Egyptian 
sandal makers of 1495 B - c - have been found in 
Thebes, showing methods something like those of 
the modern hand shoemaker who sat upon a low 
bench or form and held his work upon his knees. 
The earliest known form of footwear varied from a 
strip of leather fastened underneath as a protection 
from the ground to coverings ornamented with gems 
and gold. Sandals of papyrus and of leather were 
in quite general use in ancient times. The Teutonic 
tribes of the north of Europe wore a leather protec- 
tion upon the leg below the knee. The Romans 
adapted this custom by attaching the leg covering 
to the sandal, at first leaving the toe open and later 
closing it, thus making a complete boot. Such a 
boot or shoe was worn throughout the Middle Ages. 
In this period the shoe became one of the most im- 
portant and conspicuous articles of dress, and its 
length varied with the social or political standing 
of the wearer. Thus a prince wore a shoe thirty 

3 



4 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

inches long; a baron, one of twenty-four inches; 
a knight, one of eighteen, and so on. 

A Recent Discovery of Ancient Shoes. "The 
two-thousand-year-old footwear exhibit in the 
museum of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, 
which was recently taken from excavations made 
on the site of the ancient city of Antinoe, established 
a.d. 130, impresses the observer with the fact that 
ancient shoemakers were by no means lacking in 
skill. In looking at the exhibit, one is amazed to 
see the modern effects of many of the samples. The 
shoes are splendidly preserved, and some of the 
knitted sandals have the appearance of having been 
given only a few weeks' hard wear. Attempts at 
ornamentation show rosettes made of leather, and 
made up in a variety of designs." x 

The London Cordwainers' Company. In the 
year 1272 King Henry III granted an ordinance 
which established the Cordwainers' and Cobelers' 
Company of London, as it was first known, and 
gave it power to supervise the trade generally "for 
the relief and advancement of the whole business, 
and to the end that all frauds and deceits maye here- 
after be avoided." While "cordewaner," a word 
originating from the use of leather coming from 
Cordova in Spain, was the name used generally for 
the shoemaker of the time, the term included also 

1 From American Shoemaking, for November 7, 1914. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 5 

workers in the associated trades, such as leather 
curriers, tanners, purse and pouch makers, and 
girdlers. The "cobeler" became later the worker 
in old leather, or merely the shoe repairer. 

The Cordwainers' Company has become simply a 
guild, but one of the oldest and most honored in the 
city of London. 

Marry, because you have drank with the King, 
And the King hath so graciously pledged you, 
You shall no more be called shoemakers; 
But you and yours, to the world's end, 
Shall be called the trade of the gentle craft. 

— George-a-Greene, Old Play, 1500. 

The Moccasin of the American Indian. The 
American Indian made rawhide leather by simple 
processes, and sewed pieces of it into a foot covering 
called a " moccasin." The white men who first 
came brought shoes from the mother countries and 
for many years continued to import them; but the 
pioneers also wore the moccasins of the native, 
sometimes making them, as well as hunting 
shirts and leggings, from leather tanned by the 
Indians. 

The First American Shoemakers. The first shoe- 
makers in this country settled in Massachusetts, 
Thomas Beard and Isaac Rickerman coming to 
Salem in 1691, and Philip Kertland to Lynn in 1635. 



6 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The advent of each of these men was heralded as 
an important event and special favors were granted 
to them. They brought the methods of a trade still 
primitive though ancient in Europe. They used 
the leather apron, lap stone, hammer, wooden pegs, 
hand-made thread, boot-tree last, such as thousands 
of cobblers use even in this day of machinery. John 
Adam Dagyr, a Welshman, came to Lynn in 1750. 
He was a master-craftsman, and Lynn, which had 
already become the leading shoe town in the 
Colonies, advanced still more rapidly in the industry. 
Dagyr was the first organizer of the industry in this 
country. The more ingenious colonists learned to 
make shoes by hand, often serving an apprentice- 
ship of seven years, and the trade gradually passed 
far beyond its European stages. From these simple 
beginnings sprang the great industry of American 
shoemaking. 

An Indenture Paper. Following is a copy of the 
original agreement by which boys were apprenticed 
to the shoemaking trade in the early part of the last 
century. The original is now in the possession of 
Mr. Charles Wellesley Allen, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

"This Indenture, Witnesseth, 

"That John Goedersoon, now aged fourteen years,, 
eight months and twenty-seven days, by and with the 
consent of his step-father, John Wright, and his mother, 



8 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Mary Wright, hath put himself and, by these presents, 
doth voluntarily and of his own free will and accord, 
put himself Apprentice to Frederick Seely of the City 
of New York, Cordwainer, and after the manner of an 
Apprentice to serve from the day of the date hereof for 
and during, and until the full end of six years, three 
months and three days next ensuing during all which 
time the said Apprentice shall his master faithfully serve, 
his secrets keep, his commands everywhere readily obey. 

" He shall do no damage to his said Master nor see it 
done by others, without letting or giving notice thereof 
to his said Master. He shall not waste his said Master's 
goods nor lend unlawfully to any. He shall not contract 
matrimony within the said term; at Cards, Dice, or any 
unlawful game he shall not play, whereby his Master 
may have damages. With his own goods nor the goods 
of others, without license from his Master. . . . He 
shall neither buy nor sell. He shall not absent him- 
self, day or night, from his said Master's service without 
leave, nor haunt ale-houses, taverns or play-houses; 
but in all things behave as a faithful Apprentice ought 
to do, during the said term. 

" And the said Master shall use the utmost of his en- 
deavors to teach, or cause to be taught or instructed, 
the said Apprentice in the trade, or mystery, of a Cord- 
wainer, and procure and provide for him sufficient meat, 
washing, lodging and clothing fit for an Apprentice, 
during the said term of service and four quarters of night 
schooling, during the said term. 

" And for the true performance of all and singular 
the Covenants and Agreements aforesaid, the said parties 
bind themselves each unto the other firmly by these 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 9 

presents. In Witness Whereof the said parties have 
interchangeably set their hands and seals hereunto. 
Dated the sixth day of August, in the thirty-fifth year 
of the Independence of the United States of America, 
and in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and eleven. 

" Sealed and delivered in the 
presence of L. Cowdrey. 

" Frederick Seely, 
" John Goedersoon, 
" Maria Wright, 
" Jahan Wright." 

The Value of Shoes in Colonial Times. In spite 
of the abundance of wild and domestic animals 
whose skins might serve as leather in Colonial times, 
the prices of leather and of rough hand-made foot- 
wear were comparatively high. Leather of the finer 
sort was still imported from England. Shoes were 
the product of quite laborious processes and of con- 
siderable skill and ingenuity. They might be pur- 
chased by labor on the land or in the forest, by the 
barter of other goods or by hard English shillings. 
In the law of 1720-21 Pennsylvania fixed the maxi- 
mum price at which shoes should be sold at retail 
in the colony, as " six shillings and six pence for a 
pair of good, well-made men's shoes," five shillings 
for women's shoes, and proportionately less for 
children's shoes. This law fixed the price of leather 
also. 



io THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

With many persons, especially children and youth, 
shoes were little or seldom worn, appearing only on 
special occasions. Often the Colonial family walked 
bare-foot to church on Sunday morning, each 
member carrying his shoes in his hand until 
near the church door when they were put on the 
feet. 

Ancient Shoe Laws. The law makers of the 
Colonies from the beginning set regulations over the 
activities and employments of the people. The 
Province of Pennsylvania in 1720-21 made it a 
crime for a tanner of leather to become a currier or 
a shoemaker. Section 7 of the law reads as follows: 

" And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid 
that no person occupying or using the mystery of the 
shoemaker, shall make or cause to be made any boots, 
shoes, or slippers for sale but of leather well and suf- 
ficiently sewed with good thread well twisted and made 
and well waxed. Nor shall mingle the over-leather, that 
is to say part of the overleather being of neats leather 
and part of calves leather. Nor shall put into any boots, 
shoes, or slippers for sale, any leather made of sheepskin, 
. bulls hide, or horses hide ; or into the upper leather of 
any shoes or slippers, or into the inner part of any boots 
(inner part of the shoe excepted) any part of any hide 
from which the sole leather is cut, called the neck, shank, 
flange, powle, or cheek, upon paying a forfeiture of all 
such shoes, boots, and slippers, to be divided and applied 
in the manner directed by this act." 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



ii 




The Hand Worker in the Modern Factory, Repairing Shoes 
Injured in Passage Through Factory Processes 



12 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The same Act provided that shoes sold above the 
prices fixed by Provincial law or above the rates 
set from time to time by the mayor, alderman, 
and justices of the courts, should be subject to 
forfeiture. 

The Itinerant Shoemaker. The Colonial shoe- 
maker often traveled from house to house or village 
to village, as a journeyman, doing repair work and 
making new shoes for all the members of a family. 
The market for home-made shoes was limited in 
those days, and many of the shoemakers practiced 
other arts, such as sharpening knives, saws, and 
axes, mending furniture, repairing clocks, cutting 
hair, and pulling teeth. The traveling cobbler, 
with his kit of simple tools and with the rough and 
heavy leather of the period, was a welcome dis- 
penser of service and of news and gossip among the 
colonists. 

The First Shoe Shops. No change of importance 
from either home work or itinerant employment 
occurred in shoemaking in the colonies until about 
the middle of the eighteenth century, when the more 
enterprising cobblers began to employ others and 
work became more and more confined to local shops. 
Hand processes continued, with some sub-division 
of labor, one man cutting, another sewing, another 
fastening on the bottom of the boot with pegs, and 
so on. Often in the home or little shop the hand 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 13 

sewing was done by girls and women whose hands 
were more deft for such a process. 

Poor lone Hannah, 
Sitting at the window, binding shoes! 

Faded, wrinkled, 
Sitting, stitching, in a mournful muse! 

Bright-eyed beauty once was she, 

When the bloom was on the tree. 

Spring and winter 
Hannah's at the window, binding shoes. 
— " Hannah Binding Shoes," Lucy Larcom. 

The New England shoemakers led in the industry. 
There were a few Dutch shoemakers in New York, 
but scarcely any in the agricultural communities of 
the South. The market of the New England maker, 
therefore, included all the colonies scattered along 
the Atlantic coast. In many cases the proprietor 
of the shop made weekly or monthly trips on foot or 
with an ox-cart to a village or larger community to 
dispose of his shop-made goods, and shoe traffic 
gradually arose. 

Often the shop was closed altogether in the sum- 
mer, when work upon the land was necessary or 
fishing for those situated along the sea coast. 

Frequently the home served as a shop ; the family 
receiving shoe materials from the manufacturer or 
from the village storekeeper who acted for the manu- 
facturer or tanner. 



14 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

A Shop of a Century Ago. " Probably the oldest 
shoe factory now standing in this country is the 
Putnam shop, near the Newburyport turnpike, in 
the town of Danvers, Mass. It was built before 
the Revolution. It was one of the buildings on the 
old Putnam farm, the birthplace of General Putnam 
(" Old Put ") of Revolutionary fame. It was men- 
tioned in the first United States census of manu- 
facturing, taken in 1786, and it was then evidently 
a factory of importance. It is still in excellent 
state of preservation. Some of the tools that were 
used by its occupants are still preserved. 

" The early tools are of wrought iron. The pat- 
terns are of board. Cutters who are used to hand- 
ling thin patterns of today would think these board 
patterns very coarse. Lasts saved in the old shop 
are clumsy. The books show that they cost from 
twenty-five cents to one dollar a pair, the price 
being determined by the style. Apparently, the 
lastmakers of old well knew how to capitalize 
style. 

" All the shoes made in this old shop were made by 
hand. The shoemakers were paid from fifteen to 
twenty-five cents a pair for their labor, and they 
earned from five dollars to ten dollars a week, the 
rise and fall of their wages being determined chiefly 
by the way the orders came in. At first shoes made 
in this shop were sent in ox-wagons to Boston. 




a 



1 6 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Later they were sent in horse wagons. They were 
packed in barrels." x 

Ebenezer Breed and the Shoe Tariff. Following 
the Revolution the break between the Colonies and 
the Mother Country encouraged American indus- 
tries in many lines. American shoemaking, how- 
ever, still suffered from the competition of imported 
shoes. The habit of wearing English-made shoes 
was hard to break and many of the well-to-do people 
continued to demand them. 

At this crisis, in which an industry of great possi- 
bilities seemed likely to be restricted and confined 
mainly to the cheaper lines of product, appeared the 
first great leader of American shoe manufacture, 
Ebenezer Breed. Breed was born in Lynn, of 
Quaker parentage, and here learned the shoe trade. 
While still a young man he removed to Philadelphia, 
then the Nation's capital. Here he gained the 
friendship of prominent people, including members 
of the National Congress. He proposed a protective 
tariff on boots and shoes, and on this suggestion 
Congress passed a shoe tariff act in 1789. 

Breed was a wholesale boot and shoe merchant, 
and prospered greatly after the passage of the act. 
He was recognized as a leading American and was 
feted at home and abroad, visiting France and 
England. 

1 From Boot and Shoe Recorder, Boston. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 17 

Through misfortune in personal affairs, Ebenezer 
Breed lost his business and property and his eyesight. 
He died in the almshouse of his native town of 
Lynn. 

The following has been said of him: 

" The man who was so powerful as to build up a 
great wall of protection about the entire American 
shoe trade spent his declining days quietly and peace- 
fully in an almshouse, forgotten by nearly everyone 
but the Quakers." 

The First Shoe Factories. Soon after the Revo- 
lution shoemakers who wished to increase their out- 
put or had ambition to become manufacturers or 
employers, engaged other shoemakers to work for 
them on a larger scale than formerly, thus establish- 
ing the factory system and introducing a distinction 
between capital and labor in the industry. 

The early manufacturers devoted themselves 
more and more to buying materials in quantities and 
to selling the products of their factories. Larger 
and larger factories were erected. In many cases 
shoemakers took materials from the factory and 
made shoes at home, each in his little shop. 

A Division of Labor in the Factory: " Teams" 
and " Gangs." It was known that workmen were 
usually expert in particular operations, for instance, 
in cutting and fitting uppers, or in preparing soles, 
or in sewing the sole to the upper. This fact pro- 




Interior of a Shop in the Civil War Period 




A Modern Interior 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 19 

duced a division of labor. Shoemaking in factories 
during this period, until the introduction of machin- 
ery, was marked, also, by the custom of having 
what were called " teams " of workers. A team 
consisted of a number of. workers, each performing 
a particular process, the whole team producing an 
entire shoe. On the other hand, a team might con- 
sist of a group of men all experts upon a single 
process. Such a team was known usually as a 
" gang." A gang of bottomers, for instance, often 
went from factory to factory, or from employer to 
employer, having a contract with each to bottom all 
the shoes in process of making. 

The team or gang system gradually passed largely 
out of use after the introduction of shoe machinery. 
The term is still used in some factories, especially 
in the making or bottoming room. In one factory 
only, however, among the many investigated in 
obtaining material for this book, was there found a 
gang working as in earlier times. This was a team 
of six men making an entire shoe of high quality 
for a fine class of trade. 

A Quotation on the " Contract System." The 
following quotation gives an interesting picture of 
the contract system and team work: 1 

" With the advent of the McKay machine came new 
methods, new systems, and new styles. 

1 G. P. Lawrence, in American Shoemaking, Boston, January 
16, 1915. 



2 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

" The contract system was the popular way of making 
shoes. The manufacturer had a room in the shoe dis- 
trict, where he cut the uppers and kept his stock; he 
would then enter into a contract with some man to fit 
them. When uppers were fitted he would again make 
another contract with some other firm to bottom them. 
Thus it will be seen that little equipment was needed 
to manufacture shoes. All the room required was for 
cutting and packing. Our large and modern factories 
of today, with their splendid equipment of almost hu- 
manly intelligent machinery and skilled operators, giving 
employment to thousands of men and women, and turn- 
ing out annually 3,000,000 pairs of shoes, was never the 
dream of the old-time shoemaker. 

" Many evils grew from the contract system. It was 
a common thing for those men who had charge of the 
contract fitting and bottoming rooms to underbid each 
other, and he whose bid was lowest got the work. He 
saw to it, however, that his margin of profit remained 
the same, for he would cut the piece price of his em- 
ployees enough to make up the difference, and thus his 
margin of profits remained the same. 

" Labor organizations did much to correct this evil. 

" Prices for bottoming ranged from twenty-seven and 
one-half to forty-five cents a pair. Contractors wanted 
the lion's share for their profit, and got it. 

" The MacKay sewing machine and a few stock fif- 
ing machines were all the machines used at the time 
of the five-handed team, and they were operated by 
foot power. 

" Stock fitting was a simple operation, consisting of 
rounding and channeling and counter skiving (no mould- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 21 

ing). Five men were required to build a shoe. A bench 
six feet long and four feet wide, with two shelves in the 
center, two men on each side and one at the end, a laster, 
beater-out, trimmer, edge setter and bottom finisher, 
constituted the team, and twelve pairs of lasts were given 
to each team." 

The Attitude of Early Shoemakers towards the 
Shoe Factory. The typical shoemaker had long been 
his own master. He worked in his little shop at 
home as he pleased, doing perhaps farm work or 
engaging in some other occupation a part of the year. 
He objected to serving any other master than him- 
self, and believed that obedience to a foreman was 
a surrender of his personal rights and liberties. 
He was reluctant to submit to factory hours, from 
seven o'clock in the morning until six at night, and 
to exacting factory regulations. He opposed in like 
manner the introduction of labor-saving machinery. 

The general industrial growth of communities 
was, however, an irresistible though a slowly coming 
tide. Progressive methods of employment and the 
introduction of machinery gradually broke down all 
opposition. The individual shoemaker or cobbler 
has survived to the present day, but will probably 
disappear with this generation. 

Organization in the Factory System. Factories 
were divided into the natural divisions or depart- 
ments of shoemaking. Men were set apart to 



22 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



organize and train employees. Superintendents and 
foremen or overseers of departments appeared. 
Systems were worked out for the procuring and care 
of raw materials, for making shoes in quantity, for 
moving them in the processes of making from one 




Shipping Room of Endicott, Johnson and Company, Endi- 
cott, N. Y., from which go out daily twelve carloads, or 113,000 
pairs of shoes, the largest output of any factory in the world. 

factory room to another, for having each lot handled 
and finished as a unit, and for disposing of factory 
product through agencies established in market cen- 
ters, and through traveling salesmen. Thus factory 
organization produced also business organization. 

Specialists. Modern factory and business organi- 
zation calls for specialists in each department. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 23 

The large shoe manufacturing firm of today has a 
specialist in leather buying, another in procuring 
lasts and patterns, another in charge of miscel- 
laneous supplies, another as manager of sales, 
another as factory manager or in charge of a factory 
department, another as financier, another for ad- 
vertising, and so on through all the great divisions 
of the firm's activities. 

The Magnitude of the Industry Today. The 
growth of the shoe industry in this country has been 
marvelous. The greatest gain has taken place 
within the last twenty-five years, since the invention 
and wide-spread use of the more important shoe- 
machines. New and larger factories than were 
formerly known have been built in the East, and shoe 
manufacture has been carried into virgin territory in 
the West. There was great expansion in the leather 
industries in the western states in the years from 
1904 to 1909. This was a " boom " period, with 
consequent overproduction, retrenchment, and re- 
adjustment following up to 1 9 14. While in some 
cases men with ample capital have established large 
factories, in many other cases shoe workers have 
opened up small factories of their own. 

Although full statistical information is given in 
the census tables included in this volume, a few 
illustrative figures and facts may be presented here. 
According to the Census of Manufactures, 1914, 



24 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

there were in thirty-one states of the Union 1,964 
factories making shoes and allied products. The 
capital invested in the industry was $297,648,941, 1/ 
and the number of employees was 227,605. Eight 
hundred and eighty-four of the factories were in 
Massachusetts. There has been a constant increase 
in the industry since that time, especially in invested 
capital and employees. The persons connected with 
shoe manufacture probably now number more than 
250,000. The leading states in their order are, 
Massachusetts, New York, Missouri, New Hamp- 
shire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maine. 

Boston is the leading center of the world in the 
shoe and leather trade; Chicago, in trade in un- 
tanned hides. 

Brockton, Mass., now ranks first in the industry, 
with eighty-six per cent of its manufactures in 
shoes. It has seventy-five factories, which are 
mainly large modern structures, and produces shoes 
worth $40,000,000 annually. 

Lynn, the first home of the industry in this 
country, was long the leading city in the manufacture 
of shoes and shoe material. Sixty-five per cent of 
the manufactures of the city are in these lines. It 
has over two hundred shoe factories, some of which 
are the smaller, wooden buildings of an earlier 
period and others entirely modern, and produces 
goods to the value of $30,000,000 or more annually. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 25 

Lynn still leads in the production of women's shoes, 
in normal times. 

Other important shoe cities in the order of magni- 
tude of manufacture are Haverhill, Mass., New 
York, St. Louis, Mo., Cincinnati, Rochester, N. Y., 
Boston, Manchester, N. H., Milwaukee, Wis., 
Chicago, 111., and Auburn, Me. 

The exportation of shoes has come mostly within 
the last fifteen years, and has grown very rapidly 
within this time. The Massachusetts North Shore 
district, for example, was sending abroad more than 
ten million dollars' worth of shoes annually at the 
opening of the World War. 

The United States is not only leading the world 
in making shoes, but is finding markets increasingly 
in all countries. 

The New England Shoe and Leather Association 
has recently issued a circular from which the 
following statements are drawn : 

New England produces fifty-seven per cent of the 
boots, shoes, slippers and cut stock and findings, 
and a large percentage of all the leather made in 
this country. 

It has 1,000 shoe factories and cut stock and 
findings establishments, principally in Massa- 
chusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. 

In these industries $111,000,000 capital is in- 
vested, 100,000 wage-earners are employed, and 



26 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

the annual value of product is approximately 
$300,000,000. 

It has about 175 establishments for the pro- 
duction of leather, representing $45,000,000 of in- 
vested capital and $45,000,000 annual value of 
product. 

It also leads in the manufacture of rubber goods, 
Massachusetts alone annually producing $50,000,000 
worth of rubber boots and shoes and miscellaneous 
articles. 

Massachusetts is virtually the birthplace of the 
tanning and boot and shoe industries of the United 
States, and has possessed these allied industries for 
nearly three hundred years. 

In the boot and shoe and cut stock and findings in- 
dustries, it has about 875 establishments, with more 
than $90,000,000 invested capital, 83,000 wage- 
earners and annual value of product of $236,000,000. 

It has sixty-three cities and towns in which the 
shoe manufacturing industry is carried on. 

It has one county, Essex, which produces one- 
seventh of the combined boot and shoe and leather 
product of the United States. 

Brockton, the leading city in which men's shoes 
are manufactured; Haverhill, the foremost slipper- 
manufacturing city, and Lynn, the world's greatest 
women's footwear center, are notable examples of 
Massachusetts' shoemaking activity. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 27 

More than 3,000,000,000 pairs of shoes have been 
shipped from Boston in the past forty-five years. 

Shoe and Leather Fairs. In recent years many 
shoe and leather fairs, or expositions, and style 
shows have been held in the cities which are the 
centers of the shoe and leather industries. These 
fairs were at first managed in some instances by 
individuals and firms; but are now being conducted 
generally by the great local shoe and leather associa- 
tions of the country. The following paragraphs, 
taken from the Shoe and Leather Reporter, Boston, 
tell of the success of the first nation-wide fair yet 
held in the United States, conducted under the 
auspices of the New England Shoe and Leather 
Association : 

The first National Shoe and Leather Exposition, held 
under the co-operative system, is admitted by everyone 
to be an unqualified success. The spaces offered for 
sale were all taken and many firms were unable to par- 
ticipate but will not be excluded a year hence. From 
the inception of the idea of a permanent annual exhi- 
bition it was fairly well understood that a successful 
fair could be held every year. The vision of the pro- 
jectors of this enterprise has come true and they have 
cause to feel proud and satisfied. 

Our industry is rich in patriotic, public-spirited men 
who are willing to work early and late to promote move- 
ments for the benefit of all departments of the trade. 
It is no easy task to organize a big fair and carry out 
the details to the liking of all of the participants. 



28 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

There does not seem to be any opinion other than 
that the exposition of 1920 has established the precedent 
for an annual fair to be held in Boston. As year fol- 
lows year this annual event will increase in interest, im- 
portance, and benefit, and will become a still more vital 
factor in the merchandising of shoes and leather. 

The experiences of our trade during the war have 
taught us the impressive lesson that as an industry we 
must stand together. No firm or corporation is strong 
enough to ignore its competitors. The obvious moral 
of the times is that we must meet and confer and co- 
operate more frequently in the future than we have in 
the past. 

The concluding paragraph is from an article in 
the same issue by Mr. Frank R. Briggs, President 
of the National Shoe and Leather Exposition: 

Perhaps the dominating function of this exposition 
is the opportunity for competitive comparisons of leathers 
and shoes, prices, quality, and materials, with the re- 
sultant knowledge all in favor of the ultimate consumer. 
Certainly the showing of three hundred lines of mer- 
chandise all in intensive competition bespeaks a real ad- 
vantage to the public. 

The following material upon shoe advertising was 
prepared expressly for this volume by Mr. W. G. 
Dennison, Publicity Manager for Rice and Hutchins, 
Inc., Boston. 

The Development of Advertising in the Shoe 
Industry. In 1866, John H. Hanan, then a youth 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 29 

of seventeen, was taken into partnership with James 
Hanan, his father, an expert on leather and in shoe- 
making. 

Young Hanan entered enthusiastically into the 
selling of the output of their small factory and it 
was due to his initiative that the first shoe advertis- 
ing of a national character was done. Meeting with 
dismal failure in an attempt to sell his shoes in the 
Middle West, he realized that the one thing lacking 
was a reputation for his merchandise. 

In spite of strong opposition from his father, he 
decided that every Hanan shoe should be stamped 
Hanan and thus paved the way for named or trade- 
marked shoes the advertising of which in publica- 
tions with national circulation quickly followed. 

James Means, Wm. L. Douglas, and J. B. Lewis 
were among the pioneer advertisers with men's shoes 
selling at $3.00 and $3.50. 

Shoemaking in those days was crude compared 
with the precise methods brought about by the intro- 
duction in later years of shoemaking machines that 
seem to do everything but talk. 

Quality for quality the shoes of those days com- 
pare splendidly with today's productions and it was 
not long before the adventurous advertisers were 
doing a volume business. 

With the perfection of shoemaking machinery and 
the introduction of more and more labor-saving de- 



3 o THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

vices, the capacity of factories was greatly increased 
and incentive furnished to more manufacturers to 
advertise. 

Shoe advertising, as done in the late sixties, bears 
little if any resemblance to modern achievements, 
the art of illustration being limited to rather crude 
wood cuts while the typographical effects were 
about as interesting as a legal notice. 

Keen competition brought about a higher stand- 
ard of illustration, the introduction of the use of 
figures and more thought in the selection and use of 
types. Meanwhile, experiments conducted by 
photographers, engravers, and printers resulted in the 
invention later known as the half-tone, the perfection 
of which has made possible the realistic representa- 
tion of shoes with which the pages of all classes of 
publications are enlivened. 

No figures are available to show the extent or 
cost of advertising done by Hanan or those manu- 
facturers who immediately followed his lead and 
while the amounts must have seemed large in those 
days, an appropriation for a year's advertising then 
would scarcely pay for one page in some of our 
modern magazines. 

The earliest figures carry back but a few years 
and show that in 1914 there was spent in national 
publications $307,417. One national publication in 
1 9 14 had six shoe advertisers; in 1920 it had sixteen 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 31 

such accounts. In 19 14 this same publication billed 
$85,176; in 1920 one advertiser spent more than the 
total of the 1914 advertisers while the total of shoe 
advertisements in this publication amounted to 
$671,500. 

Figures to show the cost of shoe advertising in 
1920 are not compiled and for 1919 there are only 
exact statistics covering certain phases of shoe ad- 
vertising but a fairly accurate approximation may 
be arrived at on the basis of certain known percent- 
ages; $1,768,495 was spent for shoe advertising in 
1919 in seventy-two national publications and since 
this bears a given ratio to the total spent in these 
magazines for advertising of all kinds, it may be 
safely assumed that the same ratio applies to the 
total expenditures for all kinds of advertising in 
newspapers, direct, trade papers, novelties, electric 
and painted signs, farm papers without national 
circulation, demonstrating, window display, bill post- 
ing, street cars, programs, and motion pictures. 

The ratio established in magazine advertising gives 
a total of $20,525,400 for all the forms listed in the 
preceding paragraph .and this brings the whole 
amount up to $22,293,895, a very respectable 
amount. 

The foregoing figures show the part in the annual 
expenditures for advertising taken by the shoe in- 
dustry to be of such magnitude as to readily indicate 



32 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

its important position with regard to the country's 
industries. 

Shoe and Leather and Allied Associations. The 
shoe industry and its associated lines of activity have 
organized notable associations for trade and busi- 
ness promotion, both nationally and locally. The 
following list includes the country-wide organiza- 
tions. In most cases the officers of these bodies are 
widely scattered, and the address of the secretary 
is given as the headquarters of the organization. 

National Shoe and Leather Associations : 
National Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Association of 

the United States, Boston. 
National Leather and Shoe Finders' Association, 878 

Arcade Building, St. Louis. 
National Association of Importers of Hides and Skins, 

41 Park Row, New York. 
National Hide Dealers' Association, Chicago. 
National Shoe Wholesalers' Association of the United 

States, 127 Duane St., New York. 
National Shoe Retailers' Association of the United States 

of America, Philadelphia. 
National Shoe Travelers' Association, 207 Essex St. 

Boston. 
National Association of Superintendents and Foremen, 

207 Essex St., Boston. 

There are local associations, similar in nature to 
those in the list, in all the great shoe and leather 
centers of the United States, as, for example: 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



33 



The New England Shoe and Leather Association, 

1 66 Essex St., Boston. 
The New England Leather and Shoe Finders' Association, 

14 Albany St., Boston. 
Boston Boot and Shoe Club, 166 Essex St., Boston. 



The following diagram, taken from the United 
States Census of Manufacturers for 1914, shows 
graphically the value of products reported for the 
most important states in the industry in 191 4 and 
1909. 

Boots and Shoes — Value of Products for Leading States: 
1914 and 1909 











MILLIONS OF DOL 


LARS 






» ao eo 120 ito so 


MASSACHUSETTS 


w///y//My//////////s'////^^^^ 


NEW YORK 


'////////// 


^^^7 


ff^^ 












MISSOURI 


^^^ 


wm^m 


a 


NEW HAMPSHIRE 


^^^ 


2^^r 




' 


OHIO 
PENNSYLVANIA 




m 

1 




MAINE 


^^P 




WISCONSIN 


^^T^ 






■■M 1014 


ILLINOIS 


Warn 




VMW///A 1800 


NEW JERSEY 


w 






MINNESOTA 


_3 


• 


MICHIGAN 


1 

















Table 1 shows the value of products for 1914, 
1909, and 1904 for the 12 leading cities, each report- 
ing products in 19 14 valued at over $10,000,000, 
ranked according to value of products in 1914. 



34 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table I. * Summary for Leading Cities: 1914, 1909, and 1904 





1914 


1909 


1904 




•a 

p4 


Value of 
products 


a 


Value of 
products 


•a 

1 
2 
4 
5 
3 
6 

1? 

9 
21 
10 
14 


Value of 
products 


Brockton, Mass 


I 
2 

3 

4 

S 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 


$33,032,665 
30,066,815 
25,310953 
23,859,062 

14,525,078 
13,519,755 
13,253,410 

(') 

11,665,824 
10,247,250 
10,236,020 


2 

I 

4 
5 
3 
6 
8 
10 
7 
12 
11 
13 


$32,464,288 
34,620,870 
20,977,540 
16,695,108 

C 1 ) 

14,080,755 

11,990,187 

8,819,284 

f 1 ) 
7,431,884 
8,212,087 
6,282,520 


$30,073,014 

25,952,571 

15,257,899 

11,905,374 

19,101,166 

10,596,928 

8,620,011 

5,575,927 

6,567,903 

2,929,405 

5,592,684 

4,263,162 


New York, N. Y 


Rochester, N. Y 


Manchester, N. H 







1 Figures can not be shown without disclosing individual operations. 

* U. S. Census of Manufactures, 1914: The Leather Industry, Table 29. 

Scope of the Shoe Industry. The boot and shoe 
industry includes factories manufacturing boots, 
shoes, and slippers, moccasins, leggings, overgaiters, 
etc., and also establishments performing only special 
operations on materials largely furnished, such as 
stitching, crimping, making buttonholes, and other 
processes constituting the work done. There were 
1,355 establishments in the industry in 19 14, and 
1,248 of these were reported as making complete 
boots and shoes; 53 made, primarily, overgaiters, 
moccasins and leggings, and 54 performed some proc- 
ess on contract, largely on materials furnished. 
The amount paid for this work is a part of the 
$501,760,458 reported as the value of the products 
of the boot and shoe industry. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



35 





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36 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Comparison with Earlier Censuses. Table II sum- 
marizes the statistics of establishments engaged in 
the manufacture of boots and shoes for each census 
from 1879 to 1 914, inclusive, and gives the percent- 
ages of increase from census to census. 

Scope of the Boot and Shoe Cut Stock Industry. 
Establishments under this classification are engaged 
primarily in the manufacture of soles, top lifts, heels, 
tips, inner soles, and similar articles used in making 
shoes. At the census of 1909 statistics for this in- 
dustry were combined with those for the manu- 
facture of boots and shoes and boot and shoe find- 
ings. 

Comparison with Earlier Censuses. Table III 
summarizes the statistics of the establishments en- 
gaged in the manufacture of boot and shoe cut stock 
for each census from 1879 to 1914 and gives per- 
centage of increase. 

The condition of this industry depends largely 
upon the extent to which the articles are manu- 
factured in the boot and shoe factories. The value 
of the products, however, has increased steadily dur- 
ing the period covered by Table III. There has also 
been an increase in the cost of materials, the num- 
ber of wage earners employed, and the wages paid 
during each period since 1879, except between 1899 
and 1904, when there was a slight decrease in the 
number of wage earners. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



37 



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38 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



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HISTORICAL SKETCH 39 

In addition to the product covered by the table, 
there was $2,076,236 reported in 1914 as the value 
of boot and shoe cut stock manufactured as a subsi- 
diary product by establishments engaged primarily 
in other industries. 

Table IV shows export trade under the normal 
conditions immediately preceding the World War. 
It is of especial value, also, as showing the countries 
to which American manufacturers of footwear have 
sent their products. Our export trade in footwear 
has, however, greatly increased in the years follow- 
ing the war, as indicated by the following table taken 
from the Shoe and Leather Reporter, Boston, of 
July 8, 1920, and presenting official government in- 
formation. This great export business is to be ex- 
plained chiefly by the enterprise of American shoe 
manufacturers in securing large foreign sales and 
contracts, by the partially crippled condition of the 
shoe industry in foreign countries as a result of the 
war, by lessening competition in some countries 
outside of the theatre of the war, and by the funda- 
mental efficiency of the shoe industry in this coun- 
try. This efficiency arises from the skill of our 
manufacturers in perfecting business and factory 
organization, the standardization of shoe machinery, 
and the superiority of the American shoe worker. 



4Q 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table V. Total Exports or Shoes from the United States 
for the Month of May 1920 and 1919, and for Eleven- 
Month Periods Ending with May, 1920, 1919, and 1918. 

Exports of Children's Shoes 

Period Pairs Dollars 

May, 1920 758,447 3,629,750 

May, 1919 411,952 754,i5o 

11 months, 1920 3,254,859 5,986,638 

11 months, 1919 3,127,930 4,729,614 

11 months, 1918 3,526,802 4,176,180 

Exports of Men's Shoes 

Period Pairs Dollars 

May, 1920 758,447 3,629,750 

May, 1919 727,573 2,896,855 

1 1 months, 1920 9,753452 44,567,102 

11 months, 1919 6,699,958 2.6,011,280 

11 months, 1918 6,464,603 21,158,048 

Exports of Women's Shoes 

Period Pairs Dollars 

May, 1920 681,180 2,608,156 

May, 1919 442,901 i,24i,735 

11 months, 1920 5,472,078 19,923,642 

11 months, 1919 4,618,374 11,743,804 

11 months, 1918 3,948,901 8,511,340 

Total Exports of Shoes 

Period Pairs Dollars 

May, 1920 1,878,535 7,035,752 

May, 1919 1,582,426 4,892,740 

11 months, 1920 18,480,389 70,477,382 

11 months, 1919 14,446,262 ■ 42,484,698 

11 months, 1918 13,940,306 33,845,568 



CHAPTER II 
SHOE MACHINERY 

The Invention of Shoe Machinery. The inven- 
tion of shoe machinery, from about the middle of 
the last century, has revolutionized shoe manu- 
facture. The story of the patient development of 
one machine after another, until the dexterity of 
the human fingers has been equalled, reads like a 
romance. Most of these machines have been in- 
vented by shoeworkers themselves, often after long 
toil and study of particular processes. Inventive 
genius and mechanical skill have been granted about 
7,000 patents on shoe machinery since the establish- 
ment of the United States Patent Office in 1836. 
Sometimes there have been a score or more on a 
single machine, to protect it as it has been built up 
part by part. New patents are constantly being 
granted, nineteen being announced in one week 
during the preparation of this chapter. 

In making an ordinary shoe today there are one 
hundred and seventy-four machine operations, per- 
formed upon one hundred and fifty-four different 
machines, and thirty-six hand operations, or alto- 
gether two hundred and ten processes. About three 

41 



42 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

hundred different machines are used in the manu- 
facture of all kinds of footwear, and the number of 
processes is considerably increased. 




Operating the Rex Pulling-Over Machine, the most wonderful 
of shoe machines 



Three Stages of Development. There are three 
conspicuous stages of development in the invention 
and use of shoe machinery. 

The first stage is that of the upper-stitching 
machine, by which the top parts of the shoe are 
machine-sewed instead of being sewed by hand. 

The second is that of the sole-sewing machine, 



SHOE MACHINERY 43 

by which the soles are attached to the uppers with 
a machine instead of by hand. 

The third stage is that of machine-welting, in its 
modern form. This is an improved method of 
sewing on the sole, so that the sole is flexible, as 
was the old hand-sewed shoe. 

Other machines are subordinate to these in 
general importance, and mark steps of advance- 
ment in minor processes and features of shoe manu- 
facture. 

An account of the more important machines used 
in shoe manufacture is given herewith, in the order 
of their invention. As we shall meet these in opera- 
tion in our study of factory departments, some 
knowledge of each machine will help our under- 
standing of a process and of the running of the 
machine as an occupation. 

The Wooden Peg: 1815. Heels were fastened to 
shoes by hand-made wooden pegs as early as the 
sixteenth century. Preceding the use of shoe ma- 
chines came the machine-made peg in 181 5. Up 
to that time the bottom of the shoe had been fastened 
to the upper by sewing with heavy thread or " waxed 
ends," and in the case of some heavy boots by 
copper nails. This sewing was a slow, hard process 
and was necessarily done by men. The invention 
of the shoe peg was a great gain. The first pegs 
were whittled out by hand in imitation of the nail. 



44 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

When pegs were properly driven, piercing both the 
outer and inner sole, with the upper leather well 
drawn in between the two, the result was a great 
improvement in strength and durability over the old 
method. But the pegged shoes were less flexible 
than the sewed shoe, and many, persons still asked 
for shoes made by the old method. 

A pegging machine was invented in 1833, but 
none came into general or successful use until about 
1857, when one called the " New Era " was invented 
by B. F. Sturtevant. The pegging machine and the 
McKay machine revolutionized the industry, but did 
not put an end to hand shoemaking, which has con- 
tinued to the present day, yet with a constantly 
diminishing importance. The great gain, of course, 
was the large increase in the number of shoes made, 
with a lowering of the retail price and a widening 
shoe market. 

The Rolling Machine: 1845. The first machine 
to be widely used in shoemaking was the rolling 
machine for solidifying sole leather, which was 
introduced about 1845. Formerly the shoemaker 
was obliged to pound sole leather upon a lapstone 
with a flat-faced hammer, to make it firm and dur- 
able for the shoe bottom. This was a laborious 
process, and sometimes took a half hour for what 
can be done between the strong rollers of the machine 
in one minute. 



SHOE MACHINERY 45 

The Howe Sewing Machine: 1852. About the 
year 1851 John Brooks Nichols, a Lynn shoemaker, 
adapted the Howe sewing machine to sew the uppers 
of shoes. John Wooldredge, also of Lynn, was the 
first to use the machine, in 1852. This adaptation 
really introduced the era of machine shoemaking, 
doing away with the slow process of hand sewing. 
The process had been called " binding," and the 
handsewers were called " binders." Much of this 
work had been done in the home, and the intro- 
duction of this machine made the industry more 
distinctly a factory industry, marking the first period 
of development. 

The McKay Sewing Machine: 1858. In 1858 
Lyman R. Blake, a shoemaker of South Abington, 
now the town of Whitman, Massachusetts, invented 
a machine which sewed the soles of shoes to the 
uppers. This was improved by Robert Mathies 
and manufactured by Gordon McKay, a capitalist 
and manufacturer. It became known as the McKay 
sewing machine. 

These machines were first used in the factory of 
William Porter and Sons of Lynn in 1861 or 1862, 
and were run by foot power. The McKay machine 
ushered in the second period of development in shoe 
machinery, and has done more than any other to 
modernize shoe manufacture. 



46 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 




The McKay Sewing Machine Today 



SHOE MACHINERY 



47 



The Goodyear Welt Machine: 1862-1875. In 1862 
Auguste Destouy, a New York mechanic, invented 




Operating the Goodyear Welt and Turn Shoe Machine 

a machine with a curved needle for sewing turn 
shoes. This was later improved by as many as eight 



48 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

different mechanical experts employed by Charles 
Goodyear. 

The machine was afterwards adapted to the sewing 
of the welt in the bottom of the shoe, with patents 
in 1 87 1 and 1875, and became the famous Goodyear 
welt machine. This marks the third great period 
of development in shoe machinery. 

McKay and Goodyear were not themselves origi- 
nators; they adapted and promoted the inventions 
of shoe worker and mechanic. Other inventions no 
doubt lacked such promoters and were lost to the 
industry. 

Edge-Trimming and Heel-Trimming Machines: 
1877. Edge-trimming and heel-trimming machines 
were introduced about the year 1877, and soon 
played a very important part in shoe manufacture. 
Previous to the introduction of these machines hand 
trimmers, or " whittlers," as they were called, re- 
ceived very high wages, sometimes double those of 
lasters, who were also highly paid. Considerable 
opposition was offered to the trimming machines, 
but their speed, uniformity of work, and saving to 
the manufacturer made their adoption and universal 
use inevitable. 

The Lasting Machine: 1883. Though several 
attempts had been made to invent and operate last- 
ing machines, yet long after it was possible and 
profitable to sew shoes by machinery, it was still 



SHOE MACHINERY 49 

necessary to last them by hand. Shoe operatives 
in all lines opposed the introduction of machinery, 
feeling that it would reduce their numbers, shorten 




Operating the Edge Trimming Machine 



the period of employment each year, and make them 
more dependent upon the manufacturer. 

Foremost in this opposition to machinery were the 



50 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

hand lasters. They were strongly organized, and 
secured a very high wage, ranging from twenty to 
thirty dollars a week or more at a time when earnings 
on most processes were low as compared with present 
day wages in the shoe factory. The lasters boasted 
that their trade could never be taken away from 
them. 

A lasting machine invented by George Copeland, 
a lawyer of Boston, was exhibited at the Centennial 
Exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876. It was de- 
veloped later as the Copeland-McKay Lasting Ma- 
chine. It proved unsatisfactory, however, for finer 
grade work. There were no less than four such 
inventions in the market, soon after, at the same 
time. Matzeliger became the picturesque figure in 
the story of the lasting machine. 

Jan Ernest Matzeliger, a young man destined to 
accomplish what seemed impossible, came to Lynn 
from Dutch Guiana. He was the son of an engineer 
and himself an expert machinist. In a Lynn shoe 
factory he learned to operate a McKay machine and 
heard the boast of the hand lasters. 

Matzeliger began to work secretly on a model 
for a lasting machine. The first model was a failure, 
as was also a second. A third, however, was so 
satisfactory that money was advanced to the in- 
ventor for a fourth, in 1883. Matzeliger died while 
working upon this, but it was completed by other 



SHOE MACHINERY 51 

men, and became the foundation of the modern 
consolidated lasting machine. 




Operating the Welt Lasting Machine 

The old lasters said that this machine sung to them 
as it worked, " I've got your job! I've got your 
job! " 



52 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Some of the motions of the machine are like those 
of the hand and fingers, drawing the parts of the 
leather into place and fastening them by tacks. 
The hand worker lasted perhaps fifty pairs of shoes 
a day; the machine operator lasts from 300 to 700 
pairs in a day of ten hours. 

The Pulling Over Machine. This improvement 
was introduced early in the present century. The 
pulling over machine prepares the shoe for the last- 
ing machine. It- centers the upper upon the last, 
draws the sides and toe into place with pincers which 
work like fingers, and temporarily fastens these parts 
with tacks for lasting. " It is the acme of shoe 
machinery intricacy and accuracy, and years of 
study, and over $1,000,000 were spent in its develop- 
ment." 

While this amount seems large it probably means 
a saving to the shoe manufacturers of the United 
States of four times the amount each year. 

Joseph L. Joyce. Joseph L. Joyce was a shoe 
manufacturer of New Haven, Conn., and a friend 
of Goodyear and McKay. From i860 to 1890 he 
obtained many patents which greatly improved shoe 
machinery and the art of manufacturing. 

There are now machines large and small, simple 
and complicated, for making the various lesser parts 
of a shoe and its accessories, such as heels, counters, 
tips, eyelets, buckles, nails, thread, laces, polishing 



SHOE MACHINERY S3 

brushes, and so on ; as well as machines for manu- 
facturing the various items of factory equipment. 

Power in Shoe Manufacture. Hand and foot 
power were first used for shoemaking. In 
1855 William F. Trowbridge, at Feltonville, Mass., 
now a part of Marlboro, first applied horse power to 
shoe manufacture. Soon after this steam or water- 
power was in use in all factories. In 1890 the 
electric motor was introduced, and has gradually 
taken the place of the steam engine. 

Operating a Complicated Machine. In some 
factories it is necessary, and in all factories advisable, 
that the operator of a modern, complicated shoe 
machine should understand its parts thoroughly, 
and be able to make the adjustments and simple 
repairs that may be needed at any time. The 
worker who has mechanical ability may learn to 
adjust and repair his machine by actual experience 
in running it. 

The mechanically expert operative is able to keep 
the machine running to its full capacity and to 
lengthen its period of efficient wear. He is thus 
worth more to the factory, and has increased earning 
power under the prevailing method of piece work. 

The Leasing System. The leasing system of shoe 
machinery was introduced in 1861 by Gordon 
McKay, when it was found difficult to sell to manu- 
facturers the Blake machine for sewing uppers and 



54 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 








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SHOE MACHINERY 55 

soles together. Such machines were costly and the 
capital of most shoe manufacturers was small at 
that time. The leasing system, on a royalty basis, 
enabled the manufacturers to have the advantage 
both of the machine and of unreduced capital for 
manufacture. 

The Care of Machinery. Owing to the unusual 
conditions just described in the shoe industry and 
through the leasing of machinery, there was early 
developed by the machine manufacturing company 
a force of men who were trained in the care of ma- 
chinery, and located at convenient centers, so as to 
go wherever machinery trouble existed. With the 
evolution of the shoe machinery business, and the 
various machines used in the bottoming of shoes 
under centralized control, relatively few factories 
maintain a force of special mechanics, and these are 
generally for the purpose of millwrighting and con- 
struction. At the present time a large force of ex- 
pert " roadmen," as they are called, is located in 
all the large shoe manufacturing centers, and in 
these agencies or branch offices from which they 
travel there is constantly maintained an immediately 
available supply of the many machine parts which 
are liable to wear or breakage. These parts are all 
numbered and catalogued, so that as soon as a part 
breaks or a machine goes out of adjustment, a tele- 
phone message brings to the factory the required 



56 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



machine part. This service has been expanded to 
cover the instruction of operators upon the machines 
when set up in the factory. 




Facsimiles of Early Royalty Stamps 

The Standardization of Machinery. Because of 
standardization of machinery and processes and 
through co-operation between the manufacturer of 



SHOE MACHINERY 57 

shoe machinery and the shoe manufacturer the 
growth of the industry during the last twenty years 
has surpassed all former periods. Today, manufac- 
turers, large and small, can secure machinery by 
leasing it, and nearly all factories are conducted 
entirely on this basis. 

This fact will make our study of the industry 
easier. We shall be studying operations on standard 
machines, used quite generally in this country and 
in many factories in other countries. We must 
remember, however, that improvements are con- 
stantly being made, that a process may be entirely 
changed on any day, and that the most skillful 
operatives of machines are in constant demand 
throughout the country. 

The following account of the development of shoe 
machinery and the leasing system has been prepared 
expressly for this chapter by Mr. Arthur L. Evans, 
an authority of national reputation. The material 
presented in this account supplements the informa- 
tion already given in this chapter and sets forth 
most interestingly the leasing method which marks 
the shoe industry among world industries today. 



58 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The Development of Shoe Machinery 

By Arthur L. Evans 

Editor-in-Chief of the Retail Shoe Salesman's Institute, 
Boston, Mass. 

The development of machinery and its successful 
application to the making of shoes excels in importance 
and romantic interest every other phase in the progress 
of the boot and shoe industry. 

Until almost the middle of the last century the making 
of boots and shoes had remained in the most essential 
way a pure hand craft. The workman, seated at the 
low bench or " form," typical of the industry, used with 
few additions the same tools with which his prototype 
was familiar back in the days of the pyramids. He either 
made the complete shoe or performed such a part of the 
work as might be required of him, for in some instances 
the organization of the work had progressed to the point 
where teams or gangs worked together, each member 
performing a particular part of the work, as described in 
the previous pages. 

This era of specialization seems to have been an 
almost providential paving of the way for the introduc- 
tion of machinery and the higher specialization which its 
acceptance entailed. The transition from a pure hand 
craft to the highly organized industry of the present 
time was closely associated with the lives of four men. 
They were in order Elias Howe, Gordon McKay, Charles 
Goodyear, Sidney W. Winslow, all of whom are now 
deceased. Of the four, but one was a great inventor; 
while of the remaining three it can be safely said that 



SHOE MACHINERY 59 

no industry has produced men greater as organizers or 
of more conspicuous business genius. 

While there had been an effort to produce machinery 
as an aid in the production of footwear, more particularly 
at the time of Napoleon, who was interested purely in 
finding some means that would increase the produc- 
tion of footwear suitable for his soldiers, despite the re- 
wards offered by him, all his efforts were unavailing. 

A most important machine was the great invention 
of Elias Howe in 1848 — the sewing machine. The pri- 
vations and efforts of Howe in his home in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, in working out this great invention which 
was afterwards to revolutionize the sewing together of 
fabrics is one of surpassing romantic interest. Assailed 
by other inventors, Howe after a long litigation estab- 
lished his right to the invention and placed himself 
among the foremost inventors of all time. The invention 
of his machine, while it had no immediate effect upon the 
shoe industry, was of importance as it set up a possible 
means of sewing parts which formed the shoe upper to- 
gether and a new trend of thought in the minds of in- 
ventors. It was but a few years later that John Brooks 
Nichols, a shoemaker of Lynn, Massachusetts, adapted 
the machine for sewing leather, and the arduous duties of 
many New England housewives in binding the shoe 
uppers, as it was then called, ceased. 

In the year 1858 there was patented by Lyman R. 
Blake, a shoemaker of South Abington, Massachusetts, 
a machine for sewing the soles of shoes to the upper. 
Prior to this time all sewed soles were made by hand, 
and were the most expensive and considered the most 
desirable type of footwear. This machine attracted the 
attention of Gordon McKay, who was a wealthy man, 



60 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

as wealth went at that period, and he purchased the 
patent rights from Blake and began the development of 
the rather crude machine which he had purchased. Not 
only did he develop the machine of Blake's invention, 
but he foresaw the necessity of having the different parts 
of the shoe which were to be sewed by the McKay ma- 
chine, as it afterwards became known, prepared with the 
greatest degree of uniformity, and to that end he began 
the development of a system of machines for that pur- 
pose. 

Strange as it may seem, the centuries in which the 
making of shoes had remained so essentially a hand 
process had produced a very definite idea that it could 
never yield to the use of machinery, and McKay at the 
time that his machines were doing successful work found 
it impossible to sell them to the manufacturers, who re- 
peatedly expressed their belief that the making of shoes 
by machinery was an impossibility. In the year 1861 
McKay had practically expended his entire fortune — 
about $250,000 — in an enterprise which then seemed 
doomed to failure. The Civil War, however, changed 
the situation so radically that manufacturers were in- 
clined to investigate any means which would increase 
their production, for at that time shoemakers were leav- 
ing in great numbers for the front and the possibility of 
a great scarcity of footwear was plainly visible. Even 
this, however, did not convince shoe manufacturers that 
McKay's machine could be successfully employed, or at 
least to the point where they were willing to make an 
investment in such a doubtful enterprise. It was at 
this time that McKay's tenacity of purpose and genius 
won the day, for he got out a series of small stamps 
representing different amounts ranging from one-quarter 



SHOE MACHINERY 61 

of a cent to six cents, and went to the shoe manufacturers 
with this proposition, that, if they would take his ma- 
chines and use them, he would put them in their factory 
without charge and would accept the small amount 
specified by the stamps as his part of what he claimed 
they would save; the manufacturer could have the rest. 
These little stamps which afterwards occupied so con- 
spicuous a place in the introduction of machinery were 
arranged so that they could be applied, one on the heel 
of each so made, to different sized shoes, the greatest 
amount being for the large-sized men's shoes and ranging 
down to the smallest children's. 

This was the beginning of what has since been known 
as the royalty system in the shoe industry, a condition 
which was forced by the shoe manufacturers, and it has 
since remained an inherent and conspicuous feature in 
the industry. Mr. McKay early discovered that it was 
necessary, if he was to get a return for his machines, 
that they should be constantly in operation and to that 
end he began the organization of an expert service in 
which men who were both shoemakers and machinists 
were employed, and it was their duty immediately a 
machine went out of adjustment or a part broke to 
hasten to this machine and get it back into operation as 
quickly as possible, for when it ceased to earn any money 
for the manufacturer, it also ceased to pay any income 
to Mr. McKay. 

McKay, after his first success, by the employment of 
inventors and the purchase of inventions, added very 
rapidly to the system of machines which he was supply- 
ing to shoe manufacturers. The heeling machine in- 
vented by Charles Glidden in 1867 was first successfully 
operated in Stoneham, Massachusetts, afterwards at- 



62 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

tracted the attention of Mr. McKay in Lynn, and Mr. 
Glidden joined forces with him. A loose nailing machine, 
which drove nails which had prior to that time been 
driven singly by hand, soon made its appearance in 
common with other machines for preparing different 
parts of the work. 

Through his genius for organization and persistency, 
Charles Goodyear finally produced a machine for sewing 
the welts to shoes, and other machines to form a system 
for not only preparing the work prior to the welting 
process but for the several processes which came after- 
wards, more notably those of stitching the outsole to 
the welt. Goodyear was many years in accomplishing 
his entire purpose, for the machines were of an unusually 
complicated nature, and one of less conspicuous ability 
and persistency would have despaired of ever reaching 
the success which came to the machines before Good- 
year's death in 1896. 

The same method of placing the machines inaugurated 
by McKay was followed by Goodyear. Mr. Goodyear 
began an organization of service in connection with the 
machines which was even more widespread and more 
successful than that which McKay had started. Offices 
located in different shoe manufacturing centers dispensed 
a service which was undoubtedly of great stimulating 
influence in the growth of the shoe industry. 

The success of McKay and Goodyear stimulated the 
inventions of machines for almost every process in shoe- 
making and also induced many to invest in enterprises 
of a similar character. Until the latter part of the 
century there were many companies making machines 
for similar purposes and competing most bitterly with 
each other. One of the favorite methods of fining was 



SHOE MACHINERY 63 

by injunctions claiming infringements of patents, and 
as factories had not advanced to the stage where many 
machines were employed it often occurred that one ma- 
chine took care of the entire product for the particular 
process in which it was used. Thus the stopping of the 
machine by an injunction caused all factory production 
to cease. 

It was due undoubtedly to these conditions that there 
came into being a corporation which since that time has 
been most conspicuously associated with the advance of 
the industry. It brought under one management the 
most successful machines employed at that time in shoe 
production and was the conception of the late Sidney W. 
Winslow. It seems that at different times there arose 
the possibility of one company's controlling the outfit 
of machinery necessary for shoe production. Mr. McKay 
had attempted such a consolidation; Townsend, at one 
time a prominent figure in shoe machinery production in 
Boston, had entertained such an idea ; and Charles Good- 
year had thought at times such a thing might be possible. 
This consolidation undoubtedly was the product of the 
times and the great organizing genius of Mr. Winslow. 
The company which was formed by him was known as 
the United Shoe Machinery Company, afterwards changed 
to the United Shoe Machinery Corporation. 

Under Mr. Winslow's guidance the great number of 
successful machines which were made by it were stand- 
ardized. The production of parts was reduced to a 
practice in which every part was made with such nicety 
that it was possible to replace a broken part immediately 
for change or adjustment. The service inaugurated by 
Mr. McKay and improved by Mr. Goodyear was still 
further improved in a most conspicuous manner by Mr. 



64 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Winslow. It is said that no other industry enjoys the 
benefit of so efficient a service and that the great success 
of the corporation controlling this great number of ma- 
chines has been almost entirely based upon it. 

Mr. Winslow did not cease his activities with the ma- 
chines which his corporation acquired, but began the 
improvement of machines then in use and the invention 
of machines to take care of processes which had success- 
fully resisted all efforts of the inventor. In comparatively 
recent times there have come into use two machines 
which were the product of the United Shoe Machinery 
Corporation; one the pulling-over machine, which was 
invented after many years of effort and an expenditure, 
it is said, of over a million dollars. This machine takes 
care of one of the early processes in the bottoming of 
shoes, and, while the expense of producing it was very 
large, it has been stated that the saving to the shoe manu- 
facturers of the country incident to its use is over four 
times that amount annually. 

Another machine, known as the clicking machine, for 
cutting out the different parts which form the shoe 
uppers, has been widely adopted, and with its introduc- 
tion the last process in shoemaking which had not been 
successfully accomplished by machinery yielded. This 
machine accomplishes its work by the use of dies made 
from ribboned steel, so light that they do not mar the 
surface of the upper leather, and in some instances the 
mere act of cutting out the pieces has accomplished the 
same result as would be obtained in four different 
operations, and with great economy in the saving of 
material. The expert operator is further enabled to 
extend his knowledge of leather and the requirements of 
shoe uppers over a much larger amount of expensive 



SHOE MACHINERY 65 

material. At present it is perfectly possible that there 
should be employed in the making of a pair of high- 
grade women's shoes 174 machine operations, 154 of 
which may be performed on different machines. 

Because of the standardization of machinery and the 
high type of service which is supplied in connection with 
the machines in every shoe center, the growth of the shoe 
industry in the last twenty years has surpassed all former 
periods. It is possible for shoe manufacturers, both 
large and small, to secure machinery by leasing it, and 
nearly all in the industry have followed this method of 
securing their machine equipment, knowing that whether 
large or small they are on exactly the same basis in this 
essential part of shoe manufacture. 



CHAPTER III 
LAST-MAKING 

The last is the wooden form which determines 
the size and shape of the shoe. Last-making is not 
a part of shoemaking, but is a necessary preliminary 
process or set of processes, as is also pattern-making. 
The last-maker is a wood worker. In early times 
the hand shoemaker fashioned his own last, a single 
form for both right and left feet, with rough propor- 
tions. Only within about thirty years have separate 
forms been used for right and left lasts. With ad- 
vance in methods of shoemaking last-making has be- 
come a definite separate industry, and last factories 
have been established in most of the great shoe 
centers of the country. The last item in the cost of 
shoe manufacture varies greatly, according to 
changes in the style of footwear. 

The Shaping of the Last. The last is modeled 
from the human foot. The shape of the last is de- 
termined by careful measurements of the foot 
modified by the use or kind of wear expected, by the 
prevailing demands of style, the peculiar processes 
of manufacture, and the special materials used. 
The last must have a " mean " form, adaptable to 

66 



LAST-MAKING 67 

the varying shapes of the foot upon which the shoe is 
to be worn. In the case of shoes meant for special 
purposes, such as walking or dancing, special forms 
are used. There are, also, sectional and national 
differences of form; for instance, the prevailing 
English styles are somewhat broader and flatter than 
the American; while in American lasts the waist 
line, or measure over the instep, is less than in 
English styles, giving a closer fit in that part of the 
shoe and preventing the foot from sliding forward 
in it. 

Last Material. Lasts are made of wood or iron. 
Iron, however, is used less and less in this country 
except in repair shops. It is still used extensively in 
England. The wooden last has a plate of iron upon 
the heel, as a base for nailing on the heel of the shoe, 
and lasts used in making the McKay shoe, whose 
entire sole is nailed on, have a plate of iron over 
the bottom of the last. In England the wood used 
for lasts is mostly beech, whose close and strong 
fibre allows a smooth, firm surface, however the 
grain may be cut. In this country the wood gen- 
erally used is maple, which cuts easily and presents 
a smooth, hard surface when kiln-dried, as all woods 
must be for last-making. The hollow forms used 
by traveling salesmen, in the store window for dis- 
play, and in the home for keeping shoes in shape 
when not being worn, are made of light bass wood. 



68 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Hand Last-Making. It is interesting to review 
the processes used in earlier hand last-making, as 
they show not only the older features of a skilled 
trade but also the work that is still necessary in a 
modern industry. The tree trunks brought from 
the forests were sawed into suitable lengths for 
lasts. The lengths were " blocked " or split into 
triangular pieces large enough to afford each a last 
when cut down. The pieces were then cut down 
with the bench knife into shapes approaching that 
of the finished last, and were cut to the desired 
length. The roughly formed last was then rasped 
and scraped until all surplus wood was removed. 
Holes were drilled or bored for the insertion of hooks 
to draw the last from the completed shoe. The 
last was finished by sandpapering and rubbing down. 

Modern Last-Making. Because of the increase in 
the numbers of shoes manufactured and the multi- 
plication of styles, it long ago became necessary 
to produce lasts faster than could be done by hand. 
Early in the last century, about the year 1820, we 
find the last-making machine, or last-lathe, long 
antedating the use of shoe machinery. The last- 
lathe is a modification of the wood-turning lathe, 
first adapted to turning out axe handles and gun 
stocks. Instead of producing symmetrical forms the 
lathe is made to yield forms of irregular shape, like 
that of the human foot. The lathe has been but little 



LAST-MAKING ■ 69 

changed in later years. Its chief features are what 
are known as the model end and the cutter end. 



The Last Lathe 



The blocks from which the lasts are to be turned 
are brought from the forests in the rough, sometimes 
cut by hand and sometimes by a lathe into shape 



70 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

approaching that necessary for the last. Before 
being utilized they are kiln-dried for six or seven 
weeks, so as to prevent the finished last from 
shrinking. 

The Model Last. The making of the model from 
which other lasts are to be made is the most difficult 
process connected with the industry. An old last 
is sometimes built over by adding thicknesses of 
leather in places, or a paste of glue and sawdust, and 
by cutting down the wood in other places to produce 
the measurements necessary for a desired style. 
Sometimes the model is entirely new, made by hand 
to meet the required measurements. A standard 
size is used, a number seven or eight in men's shoes 
and a four in women's shoes. From these, by 
adjustments of the lathe, sizes and widths are graded 
up and down, usually five sizes each way. Three 
models are generally made use of for children's 
lasts. 

The Use of the Last-Lathe. The standard model 
last is clamped in the model end of the lathe, and 
the rough block of kiln-dried wood from which the 
last is to be turned is set in the cutter end of the 
machine. When the machine is put in motion the 
model swings against a model wheel, at the same 
time that the last block is forced solidly against 
the cutter wheel. As both the model and the block 
revolve, the model wheel guides and regulates the 



LAST-MAKING 71 

knife which cuts the block, from toe to heel, into an 
exact duplicate of the model, except for projections 
at either end which are cut down on the heeler or 
shaving machine. The last is then placed upon a 
polishing wheel for the processes of finishing. The 
bottoms are tested by a sole pattern of the desired 
size, and the size and width are stamped on them. 
Metal heels or entire metal soles are also attached. 
The lathe machine works so accurately that the 
slightest imperfection or variation in the model is 
reproduced in the finished last. A jnachine turns 
out about fifteen pairs of lasts an hour. 

Devices for Reducing Last in Use. There are 
various methods of making a part of the last remov- 
able or reducing its length, so that it may be more 
easily drawn from the finished shoe or inserted in a 
shoe. The earlier and a still common method is 
to saw out a portion of the instep of the last, leaving 
what is called the block last. Formerly by having 
variously shaped substitutes for the part sawed out 
modifications of styles were effected. Another form 
is the Arnold hinged last, the last being cut entirely 
in two, a V-shaped portion cut out of the instep, 
and the two parts joined by a hinge, so that the heel 
swings up freely. Some firms make a business of 
remodeling or building over lasts for shoe manufac- 
turers to meet changes in style. And old lasts are 
sometimes steamed to restore their shape and fulness. 



72 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



The Storage of Lasts. The lasts when made, or 
when returned from factory use, are usually stored 
in bins, by styles and sizes, in a room convenient 
to the lasting or making room. They are also some- 
times stained different colors to indicate different 



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The Last Storage Room of the Shoe Factory 

styles or different widths of the same style. When 
required for use they are taken from the bins, in 
sets according to lots of shoes to be made, placed 
upon the shoe racks, and started on their way 
through the factory. 

One person, very frequently a boy, usually has 
charge of the storage room. He must be thoroughly 



LAST-MAKING , 73 

familiar with the lasts in his care, and able to select 
quickly such as may be called for each day. 

To become a last maker one must have mechanical 
ability to learn any or all of the few processes in- 
volved. The work is interesting but requires the 
constant attention of the operator, as the slightest 
error or inaccuracy would result in an imperfect last. 
The operator has a fairly constant occupation, as 
the last factory runs more steadily through the year 
than does the shoe factory, and experience and skill 
are an asset to the last worker. His earnings run 
higher than those of the average shoe worker. 



CHAPTER IV 
PATTERN-MAKING 

Patterns are the forms or shapes used in cutting 
the various parts of the upper portion of the shoe. 
While a sole pattern is sometimes used, the sole is 
generally blocked or died out in the rough, being 
trimmed to shape in a later process. Pattern-making 
had advanced from a very rude beginning to proc- 
esses requiring the highest skill and adaptation to 
modern styles. In early days patterns were made 
of paper. Sometimes tissue paper was wet and 
placed upon the last, marked in lines where the 
joints of the upper should be made, and cut in these 
lines when dried and removed from the last. There 
was no allowance for grading fn sizes, and separate 
lasts were used for the various sizes. 

The Pattern Designer. In a modern shoe factory 
there is a person called the designer, who makes a 
constant study of styles. He receives the sugges- 
tions of the traveling salesmen, who are always on 
the watch for novelties in style and fashion. He 
seeks information from every source as to the perma- 
nency of old styles, the popularity of the new, and 
of changes in dress and custom that are likely to 

74 



PATTERN-MAKING 



75 




Pattern Standard Showing Heel Pitch, and Separate Patterns 
of Upper Parts. 

Courtesy of the Retail Shoe Salesmen's Institute, Boston 



76 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

demand still other styles in footwear. The designer 
is in close touch with salesmen, manufacturers and 
department heads in his own factory. He some- 
times acts as superintendent of the pattern-making 
department. Upon his skill and judgment depend 
in large measure the volume and permanency of trade 
secured by his company. He should have high 
artistic skill and knowledge of shoemaking. The 
ordinary designer must be familiar with about 
25,000 different designs. 

Frequently after a study of styles, the designer, 
the sales manager, and the factory manager confer 
on the most economical styles to be made. 

There have already been established a few facto- 
ries for the designing and making of shoe patterns, 
to sell to the manufacturer. 

The Pattern Model. In making a model for 
patterns the last is taken as a basis. With due con- 
sideration of the shape and style of the shoe, the 
material to be used, and the use to which the shoe 
is to be put, the pattern is made to conform to the 
proportions of the last. The last-maker and the 
pattern-maker work together to a definite end of 
utility and style. 

Sample patterns are submitted to the manufac- 
turer for approval, after which the pattern-maker 
draws plans for his model. The sets of model 
patterns are cut in sheet iron by hand. Patterns are 



PATTERN-MAKING 77 

reproduced from them in sheet iron or in cardboard 
by the pattern machine. The standard size of the 
model is seven in men's shoes, and four in women's, 
and by gradations above and below these numbers, 
as in last-making, other sizes are obtained. 

From the model the pattern-maker produces such 
quantities in each size as may be desired in a factory. 

The Trial Shoe. Sometimes a shoe is made as a 
trial or sample of a new style. This is taken out by 
the salesman and shown to the trade. If sufficient 
orders are placed on this particular shoe, patterns 
are made and the shoe is manufactured in quantities. 

The Number of Patterns to a Shoe. The number 
of patterns necessary for the ordinary shoe varies 
according to the kind or style of shoe. The button 
boot, for example, has the following parts, each re- 
quiring a separate pattern: Two quarters, two 
linings, button-piece, button-piece lining, top stay, 
vamp, foxing, tip, back-stay, vamp-lining, button- 
stay, backer for buttonholes, and marker for button- 
holes. Other kinds of shoes have a larger or smaller 
number of parts. 

Pattern Material. Sheet iron has long been used 
for patterns, and is still largely used for those of lin- 
ings and the cloth parts of shoes. " Junk-board," 
or heavy cardboard, made by grinding up old news- 
papers, is gradually taking the place of sheet iron, 
some factories using it altogether. Zinc, also, is 



78 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

used. Wooden patterns are sometimes used for the 
soles of shoes, by which the soles are shaped upon a 
sole-rounding machine. 

Making Patterns. The iron model is clamped to 
the bed of the grading or pattern-making machine. 
This machine operates by a system of levers, so that 
the model is reproduced in junk-board or iron, just 
as in last-making the last is determined by the model. 
By lengthening or shortening the levers sizes above 
and below the model are produced. Junk-board 
patterns are then bound with strips of metal which 
are smoothed at the corners and soldered at the 
joints. The patterns are then stamped with size 
numbers, widths, and styles. Sometimes various 
colors of the junk-board are used to indicate different 
widths. 

The Standardization of Lasts and Patterns. There 
has been considerable effort in recent years to stand- 
ardize patterns for those parts of the shoe which 
change least in shape from season to season. This 
is accomplished largely, of course, through perma- 
nent forms in corresponding parts of the last, espe- 
cially the parts back of the ball of the foot. A 
reduction in the number of patterns used by the 
cutter or of the dies required for a full run of sizes, 
when dies are used, is a great gain in shoe manu- 
facture. 

The constant increase in the cost of shoe material 



PATTERN-MAKING 79 

makes it all the more necessary to reduce cost in 
some other line. This reduction can be accom- 
plished in part by reducing varieties in form, or by 
a standardization of patterns. 

The Storage of Patterns. The patterns when 
made in quantities are stored in racks or pigeon 
holes, according to sizes and kinds, in a pattern 
room which is convenient to the cutting room of the 
shoe factory. 

Positions in the Pattern-Making Department. 
The positions in this department are: the Designer, 
or superintendent of pattern-making; an assistant 
designer, in very large establishments; the model 
grader, who does hand work; the power grader, 
who runs the pattern-making machine; the truer- 
up, who levels the metal pattern; the binder, who 
puts the steel border on the cardboard pattern; 
the finisher, who solders and smooths the binding; 
and the stamper, who places the necessary numbers 
upon the pattern. 

The pattern boys have charge of the patterns in 
storage, taking them to the cutting room and bring- 
ing them back and placing them in their proper 
spaces after use. 

The Pattern Maker. The pattern maker may be 
a person skilled in some of the operations of shoe- 
making. He should at least be familiar with its 
general processes, and should have good mechanical 



80 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

ability. The occupation, like that of the last-maker, 
is less crowded than most of the divisions of the 
work in the shoe factory. 

The Price of Patterns. " It is figured in a general 
way that a manufacturer of women's shoes should 
spend at least one-half of one per cent, of the gross 
volume of his business for patterns. That is, if he is 
doing a business of $1,000,000 annually, he should 
spend at least $5,000 for new patterns. It is quite 
likely that some manufacturers are spending a larger 
percentage than this. In the last few seasons, a 
number of manufacturers have had to increase their 
expenditures for patterns, because patterns have be- 
come much more important in the making of shoe 
styles than they ever were before. While complaints 
are common that too much money is spent for 
patterns, yet the pattern bills are among the smallest 
that a manufacturer has to pay. They are nowhere 
nearly as expensive as lasts, nor as costly as the 
trimmings that are used to put style into shoes. 

" Sometimes it pays a manufacturer to buy a new 
set of patterns, just for the purpose of getting out a 
new style in footwear. For instance, supposing a 
manufacturer buys a new set of patterns, at twenty 
dollars, and livens up his line during the dull spell of 
between seasons, and gets orders for one hundred 
cases of shoes made according to the new patterns. 
His profit is five cents a pair, and his total profit is 



PATTERN-MAKING 81 

$180. Surely it is worth while to spend $20 
to make $180. Of course, the real cost of the 
patterns depends upon the number of times they 
are used. They may be thrown aside at the end of 
the month to make way for new patterns. In that 
case their cost will figure high. But if they are 
used through a season, and are carried over to the 
next season, then their real cost figures down pretty 
low. But the main point, in dealing with the pattern 
department, is not to consider chiefly what patterns 
cost, but chiefly what they bring in the way of new 
and additional orders." 1 

1 American Shoemaking. Boston, March 6, 1015. 



CHAPTER V 
LEATHER 

Its Nature. Leather is , the skin of an animal, 
tanned or otherwise preserved, shrunk, and tough- 
ened. The skins of beast, bird, fish, or reptile may- 
be made into leather. Leather in some form has 
been used from time immemorial for clothing, foot- 
wear, harness material, and other articles for human 
use. 

Tanning. Tanning consists in converting animal 
skins or hides into leather by the use of astringent 
acids. In earlier times these acids were derived 
from vegetable products, such as the bark of the 
hemlock tree, oak tree, willow, and chestnut. The 
bark was finely ground and steeped in water, form- 
ing a strong solution or liquor in which the skins 
were placed in vats, after the removal of hair and 
surplus flesh. The action of the acid toughens the 
skin, condenses it and hardens the albuminous 
matter in it, thus preserving it from decay. The 
most common kinds of bark used have been the 
hemlock and the oak. Some months are required 
in the process, and the longer the time taken usually 
the better is the quality of the leather produced. In 

82 



LEATHER 



83 



later years mineral substances, of which chrome 
alum is a characteristic example, have come into 
quite general use for tanning. This mode is called 
chrome tanning. The acid processes require a short 
time for tanning in comparison with the bark proc- 




Operators at Shaving Machines, Upper Leather Tannery, 
W. H. McElwain Company, Manchester, N. H. 

esses, but demand careful attention to prevent in- 
jury to the leather. They afford various effects in 
the coloring of leather. Such leathers are usually 
finished dry or with only a light application of oil. 
The bark-tanned leathers go through various lengthy 
oiling processes, according to thickness and the pur- 
poses for which the leathers are designed. 



84 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Chrome tanning has transformed the shoe and 
leather industries. 

American Leather Manufacturing. The American 
leather industry has grown from small beginnings 
along with shoe manufacturing. The first leather 
used was imported from England. The colonists 
also used Indian tanned deer skins. 

The first tanner to settle in this country was 
Francis Ingalls of Lincolnshire, England, who came 
to Lynn in 1629. Philemon Dickerson, an English 
tanner, came to Salem in 1637. The tanning of 
leather was carried on at the same time probably 
in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern 
Colonies. In 1800 William Rose, another English 
tanner, was induced to come to Lynn by Ebenezer 
Breed, who had done so much to promote American 
shoe manufacture by means of the protective tariff 
on shoes. Rose became " the father of the American 
morocco manufacturing industry." 

Shortly before the War of the Rebellion, ma- 
chinery was introduced into the tanning industry, 
and today machinery is used in the place of hand 
labor in all its branches.. Machinery and the chrome 
process have given American tanners leadership in 
the leather producing industry. 

American tanneries treat annually about 20,000,- 
000 hides, or heavy varieties of leather, and about 
100,000,000 skins, or lighter varieties. They import 



LEATHER 85 

annually more than $50,000,000 worth of untanned 
skins from Europe, Africa, India, China, Siberia, 
Australia, and South American countries. American 
tanners produce each year about $300,000,000 worth 
of leather. Of this the greater part is used in the 
manufacture of boots and shoes. A much smaller 
part is used for upholstering, automobile^ and furni- 
ture, harnesses, bookbinding, machinery belting, 
trunks and bags, card cases, pocketbooks, gloves, 
and novelties. 

The Increasing Shortage of Leather. In recent 
years the leather-producing animals the world over 
have been either actually decreasing in numbers, as 
in the great West of this country, or have not in- 
creased as rapidly as has the demand for leather. 
The population of the various countries of the 
world increases steadily and the wearing of shoes 
becomes more widely a custom in the less civilized 
countries, as in the case of the countries concerned 
in the Spanish War, and new uses are steadily found 
for leather. Such a generally increasing demand 
tends to raise the price of leather and of leather 
products. Any lessening of freedom in the com- 
merce of the world, as in the case of the European 
war, tends also to bring about higher prices in 
leather products as in other imported articles. 

Leather Substitutes. As a result of the growing 
shortage of leather, the use of leather substitutes 



86 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

is becoming more and more common in the shoe 
industry. First and chief among substitutes for 
upper leather are the fabrics, white canvas being 
most used. The fabric top does not stretch, affords 
a good-looking shoe, and would find an increased 
demand even if there were no shortage of leather. It 
has becomd a fashion in some localities to have the 
top of the woman's shoe match the dress. This 
can be done easily by the use of fabrics, as well as 
by fancy leathers. Among substitutes for sole 
leather, leatherboard has been widely used. This 
consists of fibers of hard leather, waste paper, rags, 
and wood pulp, rolled into hard sheets by machinery. 
It is cut and handled in the same way as sole leather, 
and is used in particular in making the bottoms of 
the cheaper grades of shoes. Wooden heels cut in 
block are widely used in the making of slippers and 
the lighter kinds of shoes. Waterproof felt is also 
coming into use more and more for the sole of the 
shoe. Celluloid and even oilcloth products are some- 
times used for the toe boxes. It has long been the 
custom in shoe manufacture to make heels of pieced 
leather. One of the latest substitutes is " hideite 
leather." This is a leather fiber product consisting 
of soft leather skivings or remnants pressed into 
sheets. Fish skins have recently been converted 
into leather. Rubber is used more and more ex- 
tensively for the bottoms of shoes, and is in increas- 
ing demand on the part of the public. 



LEATHER 87 

The Tannery Divisions of Hides and Skins. 
According to the size, the general divisions made 
in the tanneries are three, as follows: 

First, " hides." This is the term used for skins 
of full-grown or large animals, such as cows, oxen, 
horses, the buffalo, and the walrus. These animals 
yield thick, heavy leather for shoe soles, machinery 
belting, or other uses demanding strength and dur- 
ability. An untanned upper leather hide usually 
weighs from twenty-five to sixty pounds; a sole 
leather hide, from forty to seventy pounds; hides 
weighing from seventy or seventy-five pounds up are 
used for the heavier kinds of belting. 

Second, " kips," skins of the smaller beeves, 
weighing from fifteen to twenty-five pounds. 

Third, " skins " of such animals as calves, sheep, 
goats, and dogs. 

The skins of other animals are used for leather. 
The kangaroo, for instance, provides one of the best 
leathers used in shoemaking. Upper leather is 
made mainly from cow hides, kips, and large calf- 
skins. 

Because of the greater demand for thin leathers, 
thick hides are often split into thin layers by ma- 
chinery. This is done by passing the hide through 
a set of rollers between which is a keen knife, which 
divides the parts into any desired thickness. The 
outer parts of the leather, on the hair side, are the 



88 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

most valued, and are called " grain " leather. The 
inner parts are made into a variety of different 
kinds of leather by special treatment. Various kinds 
of finishes are given, such as seal grain, glove grain, 
oil grain, buff, satin, russet, or plain. 

A Side of Leather. The larger skins are generally 
cut along the back into two halves or sides. The 
usual names for, the parts of each side are, belly, 
crop, head, back, shoulder, and bend. The belly 
contains approximately 24 per cent of the side. 
After the belly is " cropped," the balance, or 76 per 
cent of the side, is known as the crop. Taking the 
head off, or 6 per cent leaves what is known as the 
back, or 70 per cent of the original side. A shoul- 
der, representing about 15 per cent of the back, is 
cropped, leaving the bend, representing about 55 
per cent of the side. These are the different divi- 
sions known to the leather trade. The " bend " is 
the best portion of the back, behind the shoulders, 
the firmest leather of the entire skin. This part is 
devoted to the best uses and the higher grades of 
shoes, other parts to lower grades. 

Divisions of Leather in Shoe Manufacture. In 
shoe manufacture leather is divided into two general 
classes, upper leather and sole leather. The upper 
leather includes the outer parts of the shoe above 
the sole and leather when used for linings. Sole 
leather includes that used for the outer and inner 



LEATHER 




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9 o THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

soles, heels, counters, and rands. Upper leather is 
usually measured by the square foot; sole leather, 
by the pound. 

The Varieties of Upper Leather. There are five 
chief kinds of upper leather, as follows: Kid or 
goat, calfskin, side leather, sheepskin, and coltskin 
or horsehide. There are also other kinds, such as 
kangaroo, chamois, buckskin, pigskin, and a few 
special and fancy leathers. 

Kid. Kid is the name for leather made from the 
skins of full-grown goats, coming mainly from the 
mountains of India, Europe, and South America. 
There are over sixty recognized varieties of goat- 
skins. According to its tanning and finishing, kid is 
classed as glazed, mat, royal, cadet, patent, suede, 
bronze, pebbled or morocco, and so on. 

" Glazed kid," from the French " glace kid," is 
polished after tanning, and its glossy surface is ob- 
tained by burnishing on the grain side. It is pro- 
duced in various colors. Glazed kid is used for the 
uppers of shoes. 

" Mat kid " has a dull, soft, black finish, from 
treatment with beeswax or olive oil. 

" Patent " leather is produced by applying a coat 
of varnish to the finished surface of the skin. 

" Enamel " leather has a hard, glossy finish on the 
grain side, being boarded and varnished. 

" Suede " leather, a French term, means 



LEATHER 91 

" Swedish " finished. It is finished on the flesh side 
with a dry, napped surface. It is produced in a 




Emoossing Upper Leacner, Upper Leather Tannery, W. H. 
McElwain Company, Manchester, N. H. 

great variety of colors and used extensively in mak- 
ing slippers, and to some extent in light shoes. 



7 



92 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

" Bronze kid," or calfskin, is leather finished with 
a form of cochineal dye. This is a method long 
known and used especially for women's fancy shoes. 

" Vici kid " is a name first used by Robert 
Foederer of Philadelphia, about 1885, and in com- 
mon use now for chrome tanned kid dressed with a 
mixture of soap and oil. This term became a trade- 
mark, and refers generally to the better grades of 
kid leather. 

Other kinds of kid are in less general use. They 
are finished in particular ways, according to effects 
desired. " Kangaroo kid," for instance, is kid fin- 
ished in imitation of the genuine kangaroo. 

" Chamois " is oil-tanned leather made from the 
skin of chamois and other small animals. It is a 
very pliable and washable leather when genuine. 

Calfskin. Calfskin is the leather used most ex- 
tensively in shoemaking. It is the lightest, most 
pliable, serviceable, and satisfactory of all the skins 
of the neat animals. Its main sources are the farms 
of the United States, Canada, South America, and 
European countries. It is finished in many forms, 
of which it is necessary to mention only a few, as 
box, gun metal, patent, wax, willow, boarded, velvet, 
ooze, and Russia. Kips, the middle weight skins 
already spoken of, and calfskins overlap in qualities 
and uses. The calfskin is never split, but is gener- 
ally shaved to uniform thickness. The different 



LEATHER 93 

names applied to calfskin, as in the case of kid, refer 
to particular kinds of treatment in tanning and 
finishing the leather, and the terms correspond in 
the main with those already given for kid. A few 
special terms for calfskin are the following: 

" Box calf" is a proprietary name. It is a chrome- 
tanned calfskin " boarded," that is, treated by rub- 
bing with a board to raise the grain, giving a peculiar 
rough surface. Box calf is a waterproof leather of 
black or tan color, and is regarded as the best 
material for rough out-of-door wear. 

" Buckskin " is primarily deer skin tanned in oil. 
In recent usage it means any soft leather, especially 
cowhide, finished in a white, grayish, or yellowish 
color. 

" Gun metal " is chrome-tanned leather, either 
calf, veal, or side, with gun metal black finish, or 
with a bright finish. Gun metal leather is used very 
extensively in shoe manufacture. 

" Wax calf " is finished on the flesh side with a 
waxlike surface. French calf, also, is finished on 
the flesh side. 

" Willow calf " is a fine, soft, colored, chrome 
tanned skin. 

" Ooze " is a proprietary term applied to the velvet 
or soft finish skin. 

" Russia " is a colored calfskin finished and per- 
fumed with birch oil, which gives it a characteristic 
appearance and odor. 



94 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Side Leather. Side leather is a cow hide, either 
bark or chrome-tanned, with the skin cut down the 
back with two halves. The sides are split to reduce 
to thickness appropriate for shoe tops and finished 
in various forms with dry, oiled, smooth, or boarded 
surfaces, in imitation of the various finishes of calf- 
skin. It is used largely in the cheaper grades of 
men's and boys' shoes. 

Sheepskin. Sheepskin is used chiefly for shoe 
linings and outer parts where the wear is light. 

Coltskin. Coltskin and the better part of the 
horsehide have firmness of texture and suscepti- 
bility to high polish. They are used in the form 
of patent leather and in dull finish, mainly for 
men's high-grade shoes. 

Sole Leather. Sole leather includes the heavier 
and thicker kinds of leather from the skins of mature 
neat animals, such as are suitable for use in the 
bottoms and heels of shoes. It is tanned and 
finished so as to produce a firm, solid texture rather 
than great pliability. 

Sole leather is tanned from: 

Green hides generally ranging between forty and 
seventy pounds, with an average of about fifty-five 
pounds, and 

Dry hides generally ranging between sixteen and 
thirty pounds, with an average of about twenty to 
twenty-two pounds. 



LEATHER 



95 




Beam House, where hides are prepared for tanning 




Tan Yard, where hides are tanned in vats of liquor 



96 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Previous to ten years ago sole leather hides were 
tanned in liquors extracted from hemlock bark or oak 
bark, or a combination of the two, and the tanned 
leather received its name according to the tanning 
material used; namely, oak leather was tanned in 
oak bark liquors; hemlock in hemlock bark, and 
leather tanned in the combination of the two was 
called union. As the supply of bark diminished in 
the various sections where tanneries were located 
tanners were obliged to substitute other tanning 
materials, such as barks, nuts, and extract made 
from various foreign and domestic woods, so today 
leather is tanned in the combination of several 
materials and the finished product is designated 
according to the color of the leather which it re- 
sembles. Leather having a light color, resembling 
the color of old oak is called oak. That which has 
a more reddish shade is called union, and that which 
has a very dark red shade is called hemlock. Oak 
leather is used largely in high-grade men's and 
women's shoes and for the finding trade. A large 
percentage of the union leather is bought by con- 
cerns which make a business of cutting soles, and 
these are sold to be used in the manufacture of 
women's shoes. Hemlock is used in the manufac- 
ture of medium and lower priced men's shoes. There 
is also a very large export business in this class of 
leather. 



LEATHER 97 

A very small percentage of sole leather hides is 
now being tanned by a chrome process, the basis of 
this tannage being bichromate of soda. It is practi- 
cally the same process as that used in tanning chrome 
upper leather. Very heavy hides are generally used 
for leather tanned in this process because of the 
fact that the tannage does not swell the hides as does 
the vegetable process and it is necessary to get a 
hide averaging from eighty to ninety pounds in 
order to obtain the required thickness. This pro- 
cess produces a piece of leather which has a pearl 
gray color in its natural state and when water- 
proofed is of a dark greenish shade. The leather is 
used in the natural state for soles on cheap outing 
shoes and waterproofed for heavy storm shoes. 

Oak tanned leather is the best kind of sole leather, 
as is indicated always by its market price. It has 
a light, creamy tan color, and is both firm and 
flexible. Hemlock tanned is of a lower grade than 
oak or union tanned leather. Chrome tanned sole 
leather is dense, hard, and durable, but has hardly 
passed beyond its experimental stage. 

Hides, from which sole leather is made, vary 
according to climatic conditions in various quarters 
of the world. Animals living in warm climates have 
a thick and tough skin with thin hair; those living 
in cold climates have a thick coat of hair with light 
weight skin. 



9 8 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The cost of sole leather makes a large item in the 
general costs of shoe manufacture, and leather sub- 
stitutes are used chiefly for sole leather. 

Some other leather terms and varieties of leather 
not necessarily included in this chapter will be found 
in Chapter XVII, on shoemaking terms. 




The Cut-Sole Room in the Shoe Factory 

The Cut-Sole Industry. The great development 
of the shoe industry in recent years has produced 
not only dealers of all kinds of leather and shoe 
supplies, but special manufacturers of the various 
materials required by a shoe factory. As in the 
case of the automobile, shoe manufacture may be 
made almost a matter of assembling prepared parts. 



LEATHER 99 

The industry connected with the preparing of 
shoe-leather parts is especially extensive, including 
cut soles, insoles, counters, heels, top lifts, taps, 
box toes, and rands. All these parts are now pro- 
duced in highly specialized factories, and furnished 
to the shoe manufacturer at the lowest cost, in great 
numbers in uniform size and quality. Some of the 
largest manufacturing companies, however, have 
subsidiary factories in their plants for the produc- 
tion of such parts, but the smaller factories are com- 
pelled to buy them from the independent manu- 
facturer. 

Most of the lines of industry connected with the 
cutting of sole leather center in the United States, 
and there are no factories at all outside this country 
for cut-soles, heels, top pieces, and rands. There 
are forty cut-sole factories in this country, which 
do an annual volume of business of $40,000,000, 
supplying the home and foreign markets. 

The establishments included in the following table 
manufacture leather from hides and skins of all 
kinds, domestic and imported, by various methods 
of tanning, such as the oak, the hemlock, and the 
chrome or other chemical processes. The classifi- 
cation also includes the currying and finishing of 
leather to be used for various purposes, as in the 
manufacture of shoes, belting, gloves and mittens, 
bags, harness, and trunks; in the automobile, car- 



IOO 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



riage, and furniture industries; and in the binding 
of books. Many establishments tan or curry and 
finish leather under contract for concerns other than 
those engaged in the leather industry. 



Table VI.* General Statistics, Leather and its Finished Products: 
1904 to 1 914. 



Industry 



Total . 



Leather, tanned 
curried, and fin- 
ished 



Boots and shoes . 



Boot and shoe cut 
stock 

Saddlery and har- 
ness 

Boot and shoe 
findings 

Trunks and va 
Uses 

Belting, leather. . 



Gloves and mit 
tens, leather . . . 

Leather goods, not 
elsewhere speci 
fied 



Pocketbooks . 



Cen- 
sus 
year 



1914 
1909 
1904 

1914 

1909 
1904 

1914 
1909 
1904 

1914 
1909 
1904 

1914 
1909 
1904 

1914 
1909 
1904 
1914 
1909 
1904 
1914 
1909 
1904 
1914 
1909 
1904 
1914 
1909 
1904 

1914 
1909 
1904 



Num- 
ber 
of 
estab- 
lish- 
ments 



6,758 
5,728 
5,3i8 



74i 
919 

1,049 

i,35S 
1,343 
1,316 

236 
232 
290 

2,551 
1,347 
1,076 

369 
343 
289 
56l 
524 
373 
151 
139 
117 
352 
377 
339 
378 
425 
423 

64 
79 
46 



Wage earners 



Average 
num- 
ber 



307,060 
309,766 
264,459 



$169,357,560 
155,110,878 
120,833,174 



55,936 
62,202 
57,239 

191,555 
185,116 
149,924 

7,819 
6,693 
5,936 

12,969 
14,632 
15,032 

6,714 

6,488 

4,434 

9,911 

11,122 

9,091 

2,951 

3,006 

2,092 

10/ " 

n,354 

10,645 

7,071 

7, 

7,785 

1,466 
1,472 
2,281 



Wages 



$753,135,354 
669,874,518 
480,220,706 



3i,9i4,497 
32,102,845 
27,049,152 

105,695,404 
92,359,15 
69,059,680 

4,052,123 
3,156,460 
2,364,209 

7,995,6i2 
8,071,484 
7,634,311 

3,225,683 
2,947,083 
1,647,877 
5,540,157 
5,537,329 
4,139,034 
2,069,545 
1,860,880 
1,164,548 
4,558,36o 
4,763,830 
3,840,253 
3,603,865 
3,623,200 
3,137,125 

702,314 
688,615 
796,985 



Cost of 
materials 



284,245,420 
248,278,933 
191,179,073 

310,356,586 
277,467,743 
197,363,495 

51,450,498 
36,919,919 
21,586,872 

33,086,442 
33,177,937 
23,774,239 

20,304,183 
18,350,551 

6,337,8io 
13,625,457 
14,629,065 

9,107,785 
15,480,110 
15,622,603 

9,317,206 
12,170,694 
13,208,001 
10,000,. 
10,632,124 
10,290,439 

9,626,614 

1,783,840 
1,929,327 
1,926,723 



Value of 
products 



$1,104,594,557 
992,713.322 
724,391,050 



367,201,705 
327.874, [87 
252,620,986 

501,760,458 
442,630,726 
320,107,458 

59,964,523 
44,661,497 
27,675,815 

53,558,612 
54,224,602 
42,054,842 

28,303,186 
25,505,419 
9,904,887 
26,471,527 
28,027,964 
18,643,580 
23,035,951 
23,691,887 
14,220,306 
21,614,109 
23,630,598 
17,740,385 
19,333,934 
18,838,281 
17,655,345 

3,35o,552 
3,628,161 
3,767,446 



* U. S. Census of Manufactures, 1914: The Leather Industry: Table I. 



LEATHER 



101 



Leather, Tanned, Curried, and Finished — Value of Products 
for Leading States: 1914 and 1909.* 



PENNSYLVANIA 
MASSACHUSETTS 
WISCONSIN 
•NBW YORK 
NEW JERSEY 
MICHIGAN 
ILLINOIS 
OHIO 

WtST VIRGINIA 
CALIFORNIA 
VIRGINIA 
DELAWARE 
NORTH CAROLINA 
KENTUCKY 
MARYLAND 
•NOIANA 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 
MISSOURI 
MAINE 



MILLIONS OF OOLUAR8 



y/////////.y///jy////oy/////M^^^^ 



yW/M>A77////////Y///ss s//. Y/////?/7, 



Y////////A '/////////, 7////////, Y/////////. '///, 



- u^ J 



W~j^^^^ 



•' 



^^? 



^^2 



^^? 



Sf 



^^ 



f 
I 
I 



■MB 1014 



*From U. S. Census of Manufacturers, 1914: The Leather 
Industry. 



102 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table VII. Imports of Hides and Skins (except Fur Skins) into the United 
States during the Fiscal Years Ending June 30, 1913 and 1914, by Prin- 
cipal Countries, as Reported by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic 
Commerce 





1913 


1914 




Quantity 


Value 


Quantity 


Value 


Calfskins 

Belgium lbs. 

France lbs. 

Germany lbs. 

Netherlands lbs. 

Russia in Europe . . .lbs. 

Other Europe lbs. 

Canada lbs. 

South America lbs. 

Other countries . . . .lbs. 


4,724,643 

4,991,299 

16,916,203 

8,142,510 

30,247,647 

13,180,207 

5,930,010 

2,841,373 

7,585,243 


$1,271,762 
1,255,031 
5,251,602 
1,833,87s 
9,726,608 
3,247,620 
1,166,070 
656,178 
1,886,227 


5,157,640 

5,800,673 

16,560,316 

12,006,926 

19,747,462 

12,078,561 

5,734,207 

2,036,364 

3,281,441 


$1,373,096 
1,434,335 
5,392,463 
2,643,576 
7,282,870 
2,806,602 
1,066,387 
554,313 
828,311 


Total lbs. 


94,559.135 


$26,294,973 


82,403,590 


$23,381,953 


Cattle Hides 

Belgium lbs. 

Germany lbs. 

Italy lbs. 

Netherlands lbs. 

Russia in Europe . . . lbs. 
United Kingdom . . . lbs. 

Other Europe lbs. 

Canada lbs. 

Mexico lbs. 

Argentina lbs. 

Brazil lbs. 

Colombia lbs. 

Uruguay lbs. 

Venezuela lbs. 

East Indies lbs. 

Other Countries. . . . lbs. 


7,106,337 

20,102,370 

9,787,312 

2,411,973 

7,270,864 

22,906,231 

8,58S,6oo 

3,578,370 

41,608,176 

29,500,427 

2,840,141 

67,041,938 

1,743,956 

5,461,505 

7,244,806 

4,470,501 

6,929,176 

19,449,707 


$1,401,788 
3,309,014 
1,646,502 

418,849 
1,172,630 
4,262,798 
1,523,740 

590,519 
5,979,593 
4,220,572 

392,667 
12,517,587 

421,122 

966,759 
1,404,595 
1,038,754 
1,376,307 
3,655,168 


7,313,906 

19,036,552 
4,989,795 
1,967,552 
4,099,899 
9,043,103 

11,204,957 
4,272,591 

46,588,543 

33,194,289 
5,528,502 

79,787,332 
3,259,873 
5,098,244 

13,403,443 
5,149,398 
4,474,768 

21,550,741 


$1,602,241 
3,319,136 

848,989 

338,907 

680,939 
1,713,179 
2,070,836 

795,933 
7,132,744 
5,478,901 

889,636 
16,165,676 

880,780 
1,042,174 
2,627,553 
1,358,778 

899,045 
4,336,495 


Total lbs. 


268,042,390 


$46,298,964 


279,963,488 


$52,181,942 


Goatskins 

France. . lbs. 

Russia in Europe. . .lbs. 
United Kingdom . . . lbs. 

Other Europe lbs. 

Mexico lbs. 

Brazil lbs. 

Aden lbs. 

China lbs. 

East Indies lbs. 

Other Countries. . . . lbs. 


2,406,371 
7,183,542 
5,436,922 
6,306,071 
4,815,304 
4,276,365 
3,357,78i 
3,129,594 
9,827,646 
41,594,938 
2,625,746 
5,290,025 


$800,951 
1,509,091 
1,342,029 
1,861,458 
1,731,234 
1,457,242 
1,688,945 

975,894 
2,815,844 
8,429,484 

670,314 
1,507,931 


2,171,224 
5,131,075 
5,281,468 
5,068,968 
4,010,150 
3,470,013 
4,191,124 
3,595,909 
7,304,761 
35,831,857 
2,817,948 
5,884,931 


$728,762 
1,133,242 
1,261,925 
1,383,929 
1,298,039 
1,190,166 
2,177,849 
1,120,170 
2,126,706 
7,550,777 
678,252 
1,541,446 


Total lbs. 


96,250,305 


$24,790,417 


84,759,428 


$22,191,263 



LEATHER 

Table VII. — Continued 



103 





1913 


1914 




Quantity 


Value 


Quantity 


Value 


Sheepskins . 

France lbs. 

Russia in Europe. . .lbs. 
United Kingdom . . . lbs. 

Other Europe lbs. 

Canada lbs. 

Argentina lbs. 

Brazil lbs. 

Asia lbs. 

British Oceania ... lbs. 
Other countries. . . .lbs. 


2,999,829 
8,484,377 
28,885,579 
3,5io,i73 
1,860,948 
6,848,065 
993.321 
6.536,764 
8,179,576 
3,486,087 


$666,97S 

1,572,075 

5,206,068 

634,818 

190,367 

776,969 

309,265 

i,298,S8o 

1,058,438 

681,089 


2.221,769 
9,158,287 
26,384,892 
3,872,164 
3,678,117 
3,874,944 
1,582,333 
6,028,206 
9,848,498 
3,427,615 


$560,152 ] 

1,782,569 

4,783,845 

683,449 ! 

403,038 

522,626 

459,772 

1,262,050 

i,499,76i 

635,955 


Total lbs. 


71,784,719 


$12,394,944 


70,076,825 


$12,593,217 



CHAPTER VI 
THE DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE MANUFACTURE 

The Business Departments. The business side of 
modern shoemaking has definite and numerous 
divisions. There are the usual officers: President, 
vice-president, treasurer, superintendent or general 
manager, employment manager, welfare manager, 
office manager, and other heads of departments 
and divisions, with their many assistants. The 
functions and the duties connected with all these 
divisions are such as are found in the general busi- 
ness world, and are described in the volume upon 
Business Employments, which was prepared by the 
author along with this study of the shoe industry. 
From nine to ten per cent, or nearly one-tenth of the 
persons connected with the shoe industry, are em 
ployed upon its business side. The exact figures for 
1 9 14 were 90.5 per cent wage earners, or factory 
operatives, and 9.5 per cent salaried persons, pro- 
prietors and others. 

The accompanying chart, on page 105, gives a list 
of the usual business departments and shows their 
three-fold nature, — of executive control, maintenance 
of business, and maintenance of manufacture. The 

104 



DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE MANUFACTURE 105 



CHART OF THE BUSINESS DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE 
MANUFACTURE 



STOCKHOLDERS 



Employment 
Department 



EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 



DIRECTORS 



PRESIDENT 



VICE-PRESIDENT 



TREASURER 



SUPERINTENDENT 



Office Manager 



Social Service 
Department 



GENERAL OFFICES 



Order Department 



Correspondence Department 



Bookkeeping Department 



Credit and Collection Dep't 



Sales Department 



Purchasing Department 



Receiving Department 



Publicity Department 



Mailing Department 



k 



FACTORY OFFICES 



Advance Information Dep't 



Tag Department 



Dispatch Department 



Supply Department 



Upper Leather Office 



Schedule Department 



Pay Roll Department 



Cost Department 



Messenger Service — 



106 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

two divisions of employment and social service are 
in a sense independent of the three major divisions, 
or supplementary to them. The employment depart- 
ment deals with all questions of the hiring, training, 
and discharge of employees; the social service 
department, with all questions of their general wel- 
fare. 

The Executive Officers. The executive officers 
are those who work out and control the general plans 
and policies of the company. They may or may 
not be stockholders. They are responsible to the 
stockholders for the success of the company. 

The General Offices. The general offices are con- 
cerned in building up the business side of manufac- 
ture and reach out into the field of trade. These 
offices take charge of the orders received from shoe 
dealers, of correspondence, bookkeeping, and the 
credits and collections of the company. They have 
charge of purchasing and caring for materials used 
in manufacture, and of the large and important 
functions of advertising and of selling manufactured 
goods. 

The Factory Offices. The factory offices are those 
concerned closely with manufacture, touching the 
factory at every department. These offices are often 
separate from the others and placed as near the 
factory departments as possible. They take charge 
of tags made from the orders received by the order 



DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE MANUFACTURE 107 
CHART OF FACTORY MANAGEMENT 



FACTORY MANAGER 



Superintendents 



Foremen and Forewomen 



Assistants Floorpeople 



Operatives throughout Departments 



Messengers 



108 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

department and follow them through the factory. 
They provide a schedule of the time in which shoes 
shall be made or passed from room to room. They 
maintain supplies for all factory purposes, pay em- 
ployees, and Supervise the costs of manufacture. 

Factory Service and Office Service. Factory 
service does not necessarily lead to office service. 
In general the two fields of employment are quite 
separate. Boys and young men, however, are some- 
times taken into the business offices of a company, 
usually as messengers, and given at the same time 
factory training, such as observation of processes 
and routine of manufacture. Less frequently the 
plan is followed of giving six months' training in an 
office and then the same period in the factory. The 
purpose in such double training is usually to prepare 
young men to act as assistants to superintendents 
or heads of departments. Sometimes, on the other 
hand, employees in factory departments who show 
clerical ability also are taken into the factory offices, 
where there is always need of practical knowledge 
of the work of the factory. 

The Factory Departments. In the following chap- 
ters the present volume treats of actual shoemaking, 
or of factory departments and processes. There are 
six general divisions in the modern shoe factory. 
These are shown by the following chart upon factory 
departments. They are: the Upper Leather depart- 



DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE MANUFACTURE 109 



CHART OF THE FACTORY DEPARTMENTS 



FACTORY DEPARTMENTS 



Upper Leather Department 



Stitching Department 



Sole Leather Department 



Making Department 



Finishing Department 



Treeing Department * 



Packing Department 



Shipping Department 



ADDITIONAL DEPARTMENTS IN 
LARGE FACTORIES 



Heel Department 



Box Toe Department 



Box Factory 



Printing 



* Treeing, Packing, and Shipping may be treated separately 
or as one department. 



no THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

ment, the stitching department, the sole leather 
department, the making department, the finishing 
department, and the treeing, packing, and shipping 
department. These are each minutely subdivided 
into factory rooms, sections, or departments, as will 
appear in the following pages. The last division, 
treeing, packing, and shipping, in a large factory, has 
three separate departments, making eight in the 
major divisions rather than six. In large factories 
we find numerous additional departments of which 
the chief ones are shown in the second division of 
the diagram, or heel department, box toe depart- 
ment, box factory, and printing department. There 
may be sub-divisions, also, in this second group, ac- 
cording to the magnitude of manufacture. A large 
company, indeed, may produce all its materials in 
the endeavor to lower the cost of every item that 
enters into shoemaking. 

Other names are used for some of these divisions, 
usually according to locality; for instance, the stitch- 
ing department is sometimes called the fitting depart- 
ment; the making department, the bottoming depart- 
ment; and the sole leather division is called the 
stock-fitting division. The word " room " is very 
generally used for " department " for the sake of 
brevity in speaking. 

The Modern Shoe Factory. For a fuller statement 
of the nature and setting of the typical modern shoe 



DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE MANUFACTURE in 

factory the reader is here referred to the introduction 
of this book. The modern shoe factory, in which 
are found the many offices and the factory depart- 
ments just enumerated, has become quite typical in 
general form. The width of the factory is a very 




Preparing Cartons in the Box Factory, W. H. McElwain Com- 
pany, Manchester, N. H. 

important consideration. Buildings are constructed 
with a width of about fifty feet, as single long build- 
ings, or having wings of the same width, and less 
often in hollow squares, maintaining the same width 
throughout. This construction allows plenty of day- 
light along the middle of each room from the two 



ii2 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

sides. As good light is necessary to accurate work, 
it is essential that rooms be constructed in this way. 

In length, factories vary from about two hundred 
feet up to several hundred feet. The most common 
form is the long, single building, with capacity for 
a few hundred or perhaps a thousand employees. 
Some factories have small wings or adjacent struc- 
tures. The plan followed by some very large manu- 
facturing companies of extensive wings or units 
affords great length of rooms with floor space all 
well lighted from two sides, sometimes up to a 
quarter of a mile in length. Such plants employ 
four or five or more thousands of people, and turn 
out from ten to twenty thousand pairs of shoes 
daily. 

The Typical Factory. The typical factory has 
four floors for its six major departments. The sole 
leather department occupies the first or basement 
floor. The upper leather and stitching departments 
occupy the fourth or upper floor. The making 
department occupies the third floor. The finishing, 
packing, and shipping departments are upon the 
second floor. The business offices are usually 
divided between the second and third floors. The 
factory offices are usually placed as near their 
factory departments as possible. 

In the very large factories, or in the case of a 
plant consisting of several factories, there are usu- 



DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE MANUFACTURE 113 

ally central administrative offices, while the factory 
offices are in the various buildings of the plant. 

Some large factories now have as many as seven 
or eight floors. In such buildings the general plan 




A Modern Interior Showing a Row of Machines Placed by 
the Windows 

already given is followed. The sole leather depart- 
ments are on the basement floor; the upper leather 
departments occupy the top floor. Shoes in process 



H4 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



of making pass downward continually to the packing 
and shipping rooms on the first floor. Height is 
sought only when the length of the building is 
limited for providing needed floor space. Indeed, 
the long, low building or plan of separate buildings 




A Modern Interior Showing Overhead Light 

is preferable in many respects, giving less move- 
ment of manufacture up and down, less crowding 
of employees, better light and ventilation, and less 
intense jar and rumble of machinery, all tending 
to improve the conditions of employment. 

On the other hand, from the standpoint of the 
manufacturer, the closest working arrangement of 
rooms consistent with free movement and safety, 



DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE MANUFACTURE 115 




a 
H 



n6 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



is the better, since it brings smaller overhead charges, 
less expensive administration and oversight, and a 
quicker passage of the shoe from its beginning to its 
completion. Location and available building space, 




Interior of a Modern Shoe Factory, showing light provision, 
with steel sash, heating system, and concrete floor 

however, are the usual factors that determine the 
departure of a factory plan from the general and 
natural four-floor division. 

The most modern shoe factories are built of steel 
and concrete, with the outer walls largely given up 
to window space, as may be seen in the accom- 
panying illustration. 



CHAPTER VII 

METHODS IN SHOE MANUFACTURE 

The Chief Methods. The chief methods in manu- 
facturing shoes, developed mostly with the intro- 
duction of machinery, are as follows: 

The Goodyear Welt, The Standard Screw, 

The McKay, The Pegged, 

The Turned, The Nailed. 

The distinctions indicated in these terms arise 
from the methods of attaching the sole of the shoe 
to the upper, which has always been the most 
important problem of the shoemaker. Prior to the 
introduction of shoe machinery, all sewing upon 
shoes, the attaching of the bottom to the upper as 
well as sewing together the parts of the upper, was 
done by hand. In the beginning of the factory 
industry people often took parts from the factory 
to their homes for hand stitching. 

The first improvements consisted of the use of 
wooden pegs and nails, leading to the use of the 
" standard screw." In the chapter upon the history 
of shoemaking we have noted inventions which have 
dealt with the attaching of the sole to the upper — 

117 



n8 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

that of August Destouy in 1862, a machine with a 
curved needle for sewing turned shoes; that of 
Lyman R. Blake, adapted by Gordon McKay, intro- 
duced in 1862 for the same purpose, and since 
known as the McKay sewing machine; and that of 
Charles Goodyear, who adapted the Destouy ma- 
chine for turned shoes to the sewing of welts in 1871, 
known as the Goodyear Welt machine. 

Illustrations of Methods Now in Use. Upon the 
following pages are presented diagrams and descrip- 
tions of the methods now in use in shoe manufac- 
ture. Most factories confine themselves to one or 
two of these methods, one manufacturer being 
known as a maker of Goodyear Welt shoes, another 
of McKay shoes, and so on. The lighter grades of 
shoes and those worn by women and children are 
Goodyear Welt, McKay, and Turned. Many of the 
heavier grades, and especially shoes for outdoor 
wear, such as are worn by farmers, fishermen, and 
soldiers in some countries, are of the pegged and 
standard screw. The McKay method has been very 
extensively used in medium weight and cheaper 
shoes for many kinds of wear. The Goodyear Welt, 
however, has been used more and more extensively 
in the medium and better grades and is the leading 
process in importance at the present time. 

The Turned Shoe. The " turned " or " turn " 
method is used in making fine shoes and slippers for 



METHODS IN SHOE MANUFACTURE 119 

women and children. The shoe is made wrong side 
out and then turned right side out. The sole is fas- 




UPPEI} 

LINING-, 



v n —=» ■ 

-WELT.) ^-CORK FILLING."'-— STITCH UNITING ', 
•''0UT50LE INSOLE. UP PER ; 

CHANNEL AND WELT 

LIP OF INSOLF.--" 

Cross Section of a Goodyear Welt Shoe 

This diagram shows the ingenious method employed in con^ 
structing this now widely worn type of shoe, which is perfectly 
smooth inside. The tacks used in lasting are all withdrawn and 
a machine with a curved needle sews the welt and shoe upper 
to the insole without going inside the shoe. The heavy outsole 
is then stitched to the welt. The thread used is of the strong- 
est linen and thoroughly waxed. It makes the most durable and 
comfortable type of shoe, and one on which the outsole can 
readily be renewed. 

The excellent qualities and popularity of the welt shoe have 
led to many imitations of it in the McKay method. 



i2o THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

tened to the last and the upper is drawn over it, 
wrong side out, and sewed to it through a channel 
cut in the edge of the sole. The seam does not show 




CHANNEL. \^-~LA5TING TACK. 
'^-CLINCHING POINT ^STITCH <AM C -KAY MACHINE 
«J LASTING TACK. UNITING 0UT50LE AND INSOLE. 

Cross Section of a McKay Sewed Shoe 

While this is a sewed shoe, it differs radically from those made 
by the Goodyear Welt process, inasmuch as the lasting tacks 
and a line of stitches appear inside. It is the method very gen- 
erally employed in making the cheap and medium grades of 
shoes. 



METHODS IN SHOE MANUFACTURE 121 

upon the finished shoe. The chief difference be- 
tween the turn shoe and the welt or McKay is the 



UPPER N 
LINING 




STANDARD SCREW. 
CLINCHING POINT oj LASTING TACK. 

Cross Section of a Standard Screwed Shoe 

In making this type of shoe the tacks used in lasting are 
driven away in and clinched against the steel bottom of the 
last. The heavy outsole is tacked in place and fastened by 
means of screws. The metal which forms this fastening is in 
the form of wire with continuous screw thread. When the 
screw reaches the inside of the shoe, the machine automatically 
cuts it' off and feeds to the next fastening. This method makes 
a strong but stiff shoe. 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 




UPPER 

LINING, 



\ X 'LASTING TACK. 
\ PEG. 

CLINCHING POINT oj LASTING TACK. 

Cross Section of a Pegged Shoe 

This type of shoe differs from the Standard Screwed shoe 
only in the sole fastening, which is of wood, in the form of a 
shoe peg. The machine which drives the fastening forms the 
peg from a coil of calendered beech wood, which, as it is 
required by the machine, is to cut into individual pegs which 
are driven by the machine and cut off inside the shoe. It is 
a method of manufacture which was very generally used in 
the early part of the last century, but which has been largely 
replaced by other methods. 

The nailed shoe has nails in place of wooden pegs. 



METHODS IN SHOE MANUFACTURE 123 

absence of an insole. Only good leather of pliable 
quality can be used successfully in making this kind 
of a shoe, which is distinguished always for lightness 
and flexibility. This method was extensively used 
for light weight footwear before the introduction of 
machinery. The chief process has simply become a 
machine process. 

The Lace Shoe. The items shown in the analysis 
of the lace shoe are as follows: 

Tongue and tongue lining, welt, welting thread, 
top facing, back stay, top, eyelet stay, foxing, laces, 
eyelet stay, top, back stay, bobbin thread, vamp, 
toe box, eyelets, top thread, outer sole, tip, inner 
sole, eyelet lining, doubler, steel shank, top-lift, 
heel, heel pad, lining, counter. 

The Different Stages in Goodyear Welt Manu- 
facture. The various parts of the Goodyear welt 
shoe as they are brought together in the making are 
shown in the illustration on page 125. They are: 

1. A last. 

2 . An upper. 

3. An insole. 

4. Shoe lasted and ready to have welt sewed on. 

5. Welt partially sewed on. 

6. Welt entirely sewed on and shoe ready to have 
outsole laid. 

7. An outsole. 



124 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

8. Shoe with outsole laid and rounded. Channel 

lip turned up ready to be stitched. 

9. Shoe with sole stitched on. 

10. Shoe with heel in place. 

11. Heel trimmed and shoe ready for finishing. , 

Production by Methods of Manufacture. The 
production of boots, shoes, and slippers, according 
to method of manufacture, was first reported in 1909. 

Table VIII gives, by classes, for the United 
States as a whole, the number of pairs of boots, 
shoes, and slippers produced, by method of manu- 
facture, for 1 9 14 and 1909. Of the total number 
of boots and shoes manufactured in 1914, 41.4 per 
cent were made by the welted method and 37 per 
cent by the McKay, while in 1909 the largest num- 
ber, or 43.2 per cent, were McKay and 35.3 per cent 
welted. Of the boots and shoes made for men, 
nearly two-thirds were welted, while the large 
majority of the boys' and youths' shoes were McKay. 
Women's shoes were more evenly divided as to the 
method of manufacture, 45.4 per cent being McKay, 
35 per cent welted, and most of the remainder 
turned. 

Of the total production of slippers, more than 
half, 51.2 per cent, were of the turned variety. For 
men's, boys' and youths', however, there were more 
McKay reported than turned. Nearly 90 per cent 
of the infants' shoes and slippers were turned. 



METHODS IN SHOE MANUFACTURE 125 




A Goodyear Welt Shoe in the Different Stages of Manufacture 



126 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The metal-fashioned yield about 8 per cent annu- 
ally, and the wooden pegged about 2 per cent of the 
total manufacture. 

Table IX shows, by method of manufacture, the 
total number of pairs of boots, shoes, and slippers 
produced in the 12 leading states for 1914 and 
1909. 

The number of welted shoes made outnumbered 
all others in the states of Massachusetts, New York, 
Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan. In 1909 this 
was also true of the last three states, but the McKay 
shoes produced in Massachusetts outnumbered the 
welted by a smaller number of pairs, and more 
turned were produced in New York than any other 
kind. All the other states shown in the table manu- 
factured more footwear by the McKay than any 
other method in 19 14, except Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey which show the largest number as turned. 



METHODS IN SHOE MANUFACTURE 127 



Table VIII.* Boots, Shoes, and Slippers Produced in the United States 
by Methods of Manufacture: 1914 and 1909 





Cen- 
sus 
year 


Number of Pairs 


Kind 


Total 


Welted 


Turned 


McKay 


Wood or 

metal 
fastened 


Total 


1914 
1909 

1914 
1909 

igi4 
1909 
1914 
1909 
1914 
1909 
1914 
1909 
1914 
1909 
1914 
1909 

1914 
1909 
1914 
1909 

1914 
1909 
1914 
1909 


292,666,468 

285,017,181 


106,714,700 
92,119,6004 


5S.378,96i 
6,566,9881 


105,309,744 
18,266,8712 


25,263,063 
8,063,7220 




Boots and shoes.. 


252,516,603 
247,643,197 


104,466,823 
87,391,763 


29,609,882 
26,317,990 


93,448,378 
107,063,644 


24,991,520 
26,869,88 




98,031,144 
93.888,892 
22,895, 719 
23,838,626 
80,916,239 
86,595,314 
48,322,395 
43,320,365 
2,351,106 
( l ) 
17,733,689 
17,507,834 


63,975,763 

53,212,450 

4,229,490 

4,423,934 

28,319,295 

25,871,899 

7,So3,8o7 

3,883,480 

138,468 

(') 

1,362,287 

i,3i8,995 


582,802 

989,240 

41,210 

5o,377 

15,066,037 

14,281,764 

11,837,713 

10,996, 6og 

2,082,120 

( l ) 
9.087,331 
7,611,748 


14,951,419 

20,438,585 

13.451,259 

15,016,611 

36,738,465 

44,518,966 

28,178,753 

27,089,482 

128,482 

( l ) 

7,222,128 

8,396,874 


18,521,160 

19,248,617 

5,173,760 

4,347,704 

792,442 

922,685 

1,502,122 

i,35o,794 

2,036 

( l ) 

6i,943 
180,217 


Boys' and 

youths' 

Women's 

Misses' and 

children's. . . . 

Fiber 

Slippers, not else- 
where specified 


Men's, boys', 
and youths' 
Women's, miss- 
es', and chil- 
dren's 
Infants' shoes and 

slippers 

Allother 2 


3,666,972 
4,802,841 
14.066,717 
12.704,993 

15,476,763 

15,000,721 

6,939,413 

4,865,429 


296,078 

648,007 

1.066,209 

670,988 

864,015 

1.979,593 

21,575 

1,429,249 


1,563,428 
1,733,742 
7,523.903 
5,878,006 

13,226,124 

11,447,508 

3,455,624 

1,189,742 


1,753,623 
2,286,652 
5,468,505 
6,110,222 

1,311,024 
1,520,072 
3,328,214 
1,286,281 


53,843 

134,440 

8,100 

45.777 

75,6oo 

53,548 

134,000 

960,157 



1 Not reported separately. 

2 Includes athletic, sporting, logging, and mining shoes, sandals, and felt and 
other fiber slippers 

* U. S. Census of Manufactures, 1914: The Leather Industry. Table 43. 



128 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table IX* Boots, Shoes, and Slippers Produced by Methods of Man- 
ufacture in the Leading States: 1914 and 1909. 





Cen- 
sus 
year 


Number of Pairs of Boots, Shoes, and Slippers. 


State 


Total 


Welted 


Turned 


McKay 


Wood 
or metal 
fastened 


United States. . 


1914 
1909 


292,666,468 
285,017,181 


106,714,700 
92,119,600 


55,378,96i 
46,566,988 


105,309,744 
118,266,871 


25,263,063 
28,063,722 


Massachusetts. . . 


1914 
1909 


115,224,383 
118,009,926 


48,245,803 
43,068,216 


21,084,585 
18,104,556 


38,009,118 
43,910,241 


7,884,877 
12,926,913 


New York 


1914 
1909 


38,798,158 
28,538,451 


12,531,062 

8,841,244 


10,996,094 
9,817,985 


7,315,343 
7,682,691 


7,955,659 
2,196,531 


New Hampshire.. 


1914 
1909 


24,659,886 
25,534,U4 


8,767,505 
6,342,752 


- w 

1,042,833 


13,750,567 
15,947,025 


P) 

2,201,504 


Pennsylvania. . . . 


1914 
1909 


22,184,502 
17,588,474 


4,943,311 
3,436,095 


11,107,454 
8,615,131 


5,605,405 
4,900,313 


528,332 
636,935 


Missouri 


1914 
1909 


20,868,352 
25,931,107 


7,779,541 
7,427,519 


930,719 
1,499,685 


9,423,161 
15,132,538 


2,734,931 
1,871,365 


Ohio 


1914 
1909 


17,973,441 
18,908,915 


6,075,029 
5,828,114 


P) 

1,746,079 


10,384,742 
10,286,810 


P) 




1,047,912 




1914 
1909 


15,709,277 
9,275,102 


5,925,381 
4,746,113 


3,330,532 
535,489 


6,217,774 
3,686,416 


235,590 
307,084 




Wisconsin 


1914 
1909 


8,382 882 
7,296,629 


2,500,424 
1,825,953 


727,324 
565,617 


3,304,325 
2,123,436 


1,850,809 
2,781,623 




1914 
1909 


8,292,659 
8,295,805 


3,988,692 
3 820,728 


p) 
p) 


3,780,123 
3,458,585 


P) 




P) 




1914 
1909 


6,112,974 
6,154,954 


1,074,736 
1,480,016 


3,495,465 

2,972,614 


1,542,773 
1,702,324 






( 2 ) 


Minnesota 


1914 
1909 


2,718,874 
3,195,53° 


1,295,773 
1,618,890 


289,675 
171,385 


573,759 
875,652 


559,667 
529,603 


Michigan 


1914 
1909 


2,117,230 
2,986,002 


906,942 
1,121,617 


p) 

625,961 


P) 
510,074 


775,369 
728,350 



1 Figures can not be shown without disclosing individual operations. 

2 Included in "McKay," to avoid disclosure of individual operations. 

* U. S. Census of Manufactures, 1914: The Leather Industry. Table 44. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 

The Importance of Detail in Shoe Manufacture. 
It is the purpose of this and the following chapters 
to present actual factory processes and employment 
opportunities in their order. Most shoe operators 




Hand Cutters at Work, Thomas G. Plant Company, 
Boston, Mass. 
129 



i 3 o THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

are restricted to work on particular single machines 
and processes. In a few cases, especially in the 
smaller and older factories, an operator may per- 
form several related processes; or, in other words, 
several related or consecutive processes may be 
combined in one or done on a single machine. 

An average style shoe in the making must pass 
through over one hundred different pairs of hands 
and about one hundred and fifty different machines, 
involving over two hundred processes, according to 
the methods of particular factories. It is clear, then, 
that the details of manufacture are of the highest 
importance, and that every factory department must 
observe absolutely the specifications of each lot of 
shoes. 

The divisions shown in the following chart are 
the natural divisions of the upper leather department, 
as will appear in this chapter. Trimmings and lin- 
ings need not be separately presented at length. 
Pattern making, which has been treated separately 
in Chapter IV, is sometimes made the first division 
of the upper leather department, where patterns 
find their chief use. 

It may be said here, also, that the general plan 
and system of this department and of the other 
departments of shoemaking are the same in all 
factories, and that practically the same machines 
are in use everywhere, but that details and minor 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 131 

processes are so numerous that variation in them is 
to be expected. It will not be wise or necessary, 

CHART OF UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



Sorting Department 



Trimming Cutting and Dinking Department 



Lining and Cloth Cutting Department 



Upper Cutting Department 



Counting, Marking, and Skiving Department 



Assembling Department 



then, to go into the minutest details of manufacture 
in these pages. Only processes and methods that 
are general or typical need be presented. 



132 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Action upon Receipt of an Order. The making 
of a pair of shoes begins simultaneously in the cutting 
department and in the sole leather department. 
When an order is received in a modern and well- 
organized factory the order department records in 
the order book all the details regarding the samples 
upon which the order was secured. The shoe must 
be made upon these specifications in its course 
through the factory, and when finished it must con- 
form to them. 

In the order department each lot is given an order 
number. Tags bearing this number and the details 
regarding the preparation of the shoe upper, with*one 
tag for each two dozen shoes, are sent to the foreman 
of the cutting room. Other tags containing details 
about the sole leather to be used are sent to the 
foreman of the sole leather department. A third 
lot of tags is prepared for the direction of the fore- 
man of the making or bottoming room, where are 
brought together, for assembling, the various parts 
of the uppers prepared in the cutting and stitching 
rooms and of the bottoms prepared in the sole leather 
room. 

The methods of making out the tags or tickets 
which are used as guides in the various rooms of 
the shoe factory vary in some factories. A clerk 
in the cutting room, for instance, may prepare them 
upon an order sent to him from the order depart- 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



133 



ment. In all cases, however, the essential points 
given in the tags are the same. The tag specifies 
the sole, heel, upper, kind and quality, the stitching, 



READ THIS TAG 



Pn. [ Width j 1 1 1* p> \it\ 3 jllj t |ii 


5 |(l| t |«| I |ll| » 


|io]u|sol»|jo|ss| io|«s 


sa I es j so | ee 1 70 1 7sj ao 


1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 II II 


CUTTING AND FITTING BOTTOMING 


IM 


tulan 


Lut l»l 


lift. 


Oafitlt Imbj 



TIP TICKET. 



Pra. I Wl*h| 1 1 It I 1 1 11 1 3 1 3) I t J 11 I 6 I 61 I 6 I H | 7 1 71 1 1 



1 10 1 IS I 20 1 15 1 30 I 35 1 40 I IS | 60 | 65 1 60 1 66 1 70 1 To| 10 



TRIMMING TICKET. 



Pra. Width 1 It 1 31 3 31 4 41 6 5| 6 6) 7 j 71 



|lo|is|lo|is|3o|35l«|4s|so[s5[6o|e5|7o|7s|s0 



J_L 



LINING TICKET. 



Pra. |WUih| 1 |lt|,l I It I 3|3l|4 |4l[ 6 | 61 1 
*| 10 j lfi J 20 [ 3S I 30 [ 35 J I0|is|5o|ss| 



Ml 

|75ll0 



I II I I I I I f I 1 I I I 1 I 



SOLE LEATHER TICKET. 



-«!•— 



fn. Wlith 1 U 1 H 1|31 I 111 5 I 61 J 6 61 7 



FOXING TICKET 

Caaa No Elnd Pat 17 3 


Stitch Vo Back St*y 


Pra.|wuth| l|lt|l|li[ 9|3||t |lt| B | Btj l|et| 7 \n\ S 


| 10 J IS | 30 [ 33 j 30 J 35 J «[ 43 | 6o| 65 | 60 j 65 | 70 1 7sJ SO 


1 M 1 1 1 1 1 1 II II II 1 




CimDi. TIP PatSa. 


Pra. |wiith| l|l||l|lt| l|lt|l J4|] 6 |st| e|ct| 7 1 7* j 6 


| |io|it|io|is|»|j6| toj is| so) e£[ eo| se| to) tg| ao 


■1 1 II 1 1 1 M M 1 II II 



1 10 j 15 1 20 1 26 j 30 [ 36 j 10 ] -46 1 &0 I 55 ] SO I 65 I 70 



Itil 

7s|l0 



INSOLE TICKET. 



Pra. |WUth| 1 I It I 3 1 11 I 3 | 3> | 4 j It | 6 , 6( j 6 | 6| j 7 j7t| 8 
7s|«0 



10 I IS 30 1 2S I 30 I 3S I 40 1 -46 ] 50 [ 55 ] GO | OS [ 70 1 



STRAP TICKET. - 



Prt j Width I 1 |lt| 3 [ll[ 3 |3l| 1 [lt| S |st[ » |6l| 7 [7)| I 



[ 10 I IS {. S30 1 at> j 30 I SS I 40 (« j 50 1 56 I 00 1 68 1 TO I TE| 80 



J! 



A Typical Shoe Tag 

the style of last, bottom finishing, treeing, and pack- 
ing. Above is presented a typical tag used in the 
shoe factory. 



i 3 4 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The Day Sheet. The despatch department has 
charge of the passing of work into the factory and 
of following it up through the factory. From the 
tags received by the order department the despatch 
offices prepares schedules or bulletins called day 
sheets. These sheets show accurately the details of 
each and every lot of shoes passing into the factory 
on a given day and also the scheduled time when the 
last lot of each day's work should pass a given point 
in the factory. The day sheet contains also supple- 
mentary information showing the exact quantity of 
each of the various special items of product com- 
posing a particular day's work. The sheets are 
made in duplicate. One set is kept in the office and 
upon it are checked off records of the work as it 
proceeds through the factory. This sheet also con- 
tains the name of the customer for whom the shoes 
are being made, their price, and the name and com- 
mission of the salesman. Other sets go to the 
various factory rooms as guides and records of the 
day's work. The sheet used in the cutting room 
contains the specifications which constitute the cut- 
ting instructions, such as the kind of the upper stock 
and linings to be used, the price, and the number of 
square feet. On this sheet are recorded, also, all 
the details of the work of cutting as the cutting is 
done. The use of the day sheet is quite universal 
in shoe manufacture and it has done much to pro- 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 135 







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136 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

more efficient methods. On page 135 is presented 
a typical shoe factory day sheet. 

The Upper Leather Room. The upper leather 
room is that division of the upper leather department 
in which leather stock is measured and sorted for 
the cutting room. The department includes the 
care, sorting, and cutting of the leather and other 
materials that enter into the upper of the finished 
shoe, and has three divisions, leather, linings, and 
trimmings, each being usually called a department 
or room. 

Measuring Upper Leather. About two hundred 
different kinds of upper leather are now in use. 
They usually come from the wholesale houses or 
store rooms of the factory in boxes to the upper 
leather room. There they are taken from the boxes, 
counted, measured upon a machine, and stamped 
with the number of square feet in each piece. The 
machine used in measuring the upper leather is very 
sensitive to heat and cold, and must be adjusted 
every morning for the day's use. It records the 
exact number of square inches in the skin. The 
operator of it must be very careful and trustworthy. 
Upper leather constitutes a large part of the cost 
of shoe manufacture, and its economic use is abso- 
lutely essential in a factory. 

The Leather Sorter. Leather sorting follows 
measuring and is equally important. The cutting 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



*37 



room tags calling for particular kinds of leather for 
particular lots of shoes are given to the leather 
sorter. He must be able to judge by experience 
exactly the amount and quality of leather required 
to cut each order, though the quantity may be 




Upper Leather Stock-Sorting Department, W. H. McElwain 
Company, Manchester, X. H. 

figured in the office. He tests the quality by doub- 
ling a skin along the back and passing his fingers 
over the folded edge. He rolls the skins selected or 
sorted for each lot of shoes into a bundle, attaches 
the ticket which he has used, and sends the bundle 
to the cutter. The leather sorter must himself have 



138 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

served several years' apprenticeship as a cutter, so 
as to become used to the kinds, feel, and cutting 
value of leather. After sorting, the upper leather 
is sometimes weighed out by thickness into lots of 
definite weight, and placed on shelves in the room 
until needed for orders from the cutting room. 

The Lining Sorter. There is usually, also, a sorter 
of the various kinds of cloth, such as twills and 
drills, used for the linings of shoes. These are in- 
spected for their weave, strength, and chemical 
qualities. They are inspected both for acceptance 
by the factory and for grades for particular kinds 
of shoes. They are marked and labeled and put 
away in grades corresponding to intended uses. 
The lining sorter must usually have had training 
in a textile school. 

The Positions in a Sorting Department. In the 
small factory one or two persons only may be em- 
ployed in the work of measuring and sorting leather. 
Very many shoe factories, however, in which large 
and valuable quantities of stock are used daily, have 
•a fully organized sorting department. 

The positions in a modern sorting department 
are as follows: 

i. The Inspector, who examines the material 
selected by the sorters for particular uses, to see 
that it is rightly chosen. 

2. The head sorter, who has charge of sorting. 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 139 

3. Several or more leather and lining sorters. 

4. One or two weighers of the sorted lots of 
leather. 

5. Men who put up the work called for by the 
cutter's tags, selecting the leather according to the 
price given upon the tag, and placing the bundles 
in their proper places for passage into the cutting 
room. 

6. Girls who figure the allowances of leather 
called for by the tags and keep the cutters' accounts. 
This work must be accurately done and demands 
considerable ability. 

The Lining and Cloth-Cutting Section. The cut- 
ting of cloth tops and linings was formerly done 
largely by hand. The hand worker places a pattern 
upon the cloth and cuts quickly around the edge 
of the pattern with a knife. He may cut the cloth 
in the single piece or in layers up to eight thick- 
nesses. Such cutting is never accurate, and with 
the increased use of textiles in shoemaking it proves 
too slow a method. The dieing or dinking machine 
is being used more and more for the cutting of cloth 
parts. The die made in the shape of the usual pat- 
tern is accurate, and from twenty-four to forty 
thicknesses of cloth may be cut by it at one time, 
increasing the work of the section many fold. The 
cost in cases of die cutting is reckoned at about 



1 4 o THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

one-tenth of that by hand cutting. Hand dieing or 
dinking is in practice to some extent. 

As has been pointed out, the dieing or dinking 
section works entirely according to the specification 
of tags for each lot of shoes. Lots go through the 
room in pairs varying from one hundred and eight 
to one hundred and fifty in number for hand cutting, 
and about four hundred for machine dieing. The 
usual lining parts to be cut or died out are, quarter 
lining, top band, inside stay, fly lining, back stay, 
and tip. 

Patterns and dies are selected not only for each of 
these parts but for the particular style of shoe 
called for. 

The Positions in the Lining and Cloth-Cutting 
Section. The usual positions connected with the 
cutting of cloth tops and linings are, the Foreman, 
the hand cutters, the machine dinkers, the hand 
dinkers, the pattern boy, the cloth and lining folders, 
the piece sorters, the inspectors, the cripple cutter, 
and the stDck man. There may also be an instruc- 
tor, to aid the foreman in teaching new employees. 
After about one year's service on cloth and linings 
cutters may go to the outside or leather cutting 
room. 

The Cutting Room. The cutting room is that 
division of the upper leather department in which 
the leather is cut, by hand or with a die, for the 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 141 

upper parts of the shoe. It is the most important 
section of the large department. The cut parts 
finally go to the assembling room along with the 
linings from the lining room, and are there put to- 
gether ready for the stitching room. 




Cutting Shoe Trimming Parts, Upper Leather Supply Factory, 
No. 1 Building, Central Plant, Manchester, N. H. 

The Hand Cutter. Cutting the upper parts of 
the shoe by hand was the method preceding the 
introduction of machinery, and is still in use, espe- 
cially in the smaller and older factories, or in facto- 
ries that handle small skins. It is an expert process 
demanding years of practice for the finest work, 



142 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

and has been so satisfactory that it gives way but 
slowly to the use of machinery. The particular 
advantage of hand cutting, in addition to the more 
economical use of leather, is that the hand cutter is 
more likely to place his patterns so that the different 
parts of the skin may be cut according to the quali- 
ties needed for the different parts of the shoe. 
With the improvements in the tanning of leather so 
that more uniform qualities are obtained, and with 
the increased demand for speed in cutting, large 
establishments are tending gradually to the use of 
machine dieing. 

Hand cutting is done upon hard wood blocks 
made especially for the purpose, or thick " cutting 
boards " arranged at a convenient height for the 
workman to stand before them. He uses a short- 
bladed, keen-edged knife. It is a part of his training 
to know how to keep his board smooth and oiled 
regularly and his knife sharp. 

The leather cutter is sometimes called " outside 
cutter," to distinguish him from the cutter of linings 
and trimmings. 

The cutter receives a bundle or lot of leather with 
its tag from the sorting room, and the patterns 
called for by the tag from the pattern room. He 
lays out his patterns conveniently at hand in the 
order of large, medium, and small. He places one 
skin at a time upon the block. Placing a particular 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 143 

pattern upon it, so that the part selected is best 
suited to the corresponding part of the completed 
shoe, he draws his knife skillfully around the metal 
edge of the pattern. This involves several or more 
motions with the dangers of cutting away from the 




A Skin Showing How Patterns are Placed in Cutting 

pattern and of cutting the fingers. The cutter uses 
his patterns alternately, or with variation of sizes 
and positions, so as to cut the skin most economi- 
cally. Usually the waste parts are very small and 
unsuited to other purposes in the factory, except for 



i 4 4 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

such trimmings as back straps and vamp stays. 
They are generally sold to be consumed in making 
leather substitutes, or for the oil they contain. The 
cutter lays out all his cut parts in lots and marks 
the upper piece by pattern, size, width and style. 
He ties up these lots with the tag and a sticker 
attached showing the case number, the number of 
pairs, and the size. 

The work of the cutter is checked up in the sorting 
room, making an exact efficiency record for each 
workman, and the totals of cutting are placed upon 
the cutting room day sheet. 

The outside cutter learns his trade by work upon 
cloth and linings or by service in leather cutting in 
a small factory. 

The Clicking Machine. As has already been 
indicated, large shoe factories are coming to use 
machines for cutting leather, in some factories both 
the hand method and the machine method being 
found side by side. The machine, which performs 
a process formerly thought impossible except by 
hand, has a cutting board or block like that of the 
hand worker. A strong arm or beam swings from 
side to side over this block. A skin is placed upon 
the block and the operator of the machine sets a 
die upon the leather, just as the hand worker would 
place a pattern upon it. He then swings the arm 
of the machine over the die, which is pressed through 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 145 

the leather by the automatic action of the machine. 
The arm then returns automatically to its full height. 
Dies may be used alternately as in hand work, so 
as to cut the skin economically. They are made in 




Upper Leather Cutting Room, Showing Clicking Machine, 
W. H. McElwain Company, Manchester, N. H. 

various designs and sizes with one die for each design 
and size. Thus it will be seen that machine cutting 
calls for a large number of dies. Each is about 
three-quarters of an inch in height, so that the oper- 



1 46 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

ator can see clearly where he is placing it upon the 
leather, and of such light weight as not to injure the 
leather. Cutting is done upon one thickness only. 
One movement of the arm of the machine, guided by 
the operator, accomplishes what it would take the 
hand cutter considerable time to do in passing his 
knife entirely around the edge of the. pattern. All 
pieces cut by a die must be identically the same, 
while in hand cutting there would necessarily be some 
variation in size. The dies used for the vamps mark 
the location of the toe cap and Blucher foxings that 
may be added later. The cut parts are treated as in 
hand work, and sent on to the next operations. 

The die-cutting machine is called the " clicking 
machine," and is one of the most important recent 
innovations in the making of shoes. An illustra- 
tion of this machine is on page 145. 

The Counting, Marking, and Skiving Department. 
In a small factory many of the minor operations of 
shoemaking are done in some part of the rooms in 
which the related major processes are performed. 
Such minor operations may employ but few people. 
In the larger factories, however, they become very 
important because of the large number of shoes 
made daily. They then employ many persons and 
are carried on in separate rooms and departments. 
Such is the department in which the counting, 
marking, and skiving of the pieces coming from the 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 147 

cutting room are done. The cutter, or some other 
employee in the cutting room, has marked only 
the top piece of each lot. In this department girls 
untie the lots, count them to see that the number 
called for by the tag is present, and mark the size 




Operating the Skiving Machine 

upon each part. The employees of this department, 
except for a machinist who has charge of the ma- 
chines, are regularly girls and women. The entire 
department is sometimes called the skiving depart- 
ment, from the chief process in it. 

Skiving. The edges of the upper leather which 



i 4 8 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

are to show in the finished shoe are " skived," or 
beveled to a thin edge which can be folded in so as 
to give a more finished appearance to the completed 
shoe. This work is done by girls upon skiving ma- 
chines. Such edges on thick leather are sometimes 
stained the color of the leather itself instead of 
being skived. The skived edges are covered with 
a coating of cement, and placed in a machine which 
folds and presses them at the same time. 

Nicking. All curved edges of upper leather parts 
are nicked or cut with little notches by girls upon 
nicking machines. This is done so that such parts 
may be folded in evenly and smoothly in stitching 
the shoe. Sometimes edges which will show in the 
completed shoe are scalloped. 

Dieing Out Straps. Straps for Oxford shoes and 
button flies are usually died out by hand, by the use 
of a mallet, in this department, rather than by the 
cutter in the cutting room, where, being the smallest 
parts, they cause some delay in cutting. 

Positions in the Skiving Department. The posi- 
tions in the skiving department are, the Forewoman ; 
floor girls, who give out work, gather it up, and 
check it off as it leaves the room; counters and 
markers; skivers; nickers and scallopers; edge 
stainers, and the machinist. 

Assembling Department. The upper parts of 
the shoe come on trucks from the skiving room to 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 149 

the assembling department. Here are many boxes 
in which the lots are placed according to numbers, 
with four tags for each order, the tag for the outer, 
upper part of the shoe, for linings, for trimmings, 
and for tip. In each box are placed the parts 
necessary for the complete upper, by adding to each 
lot what its tag calls for. Linings are marked upon 
a stamping machine with size, width, and case num- 
ber. When all parts have been assembled they are 
divided for the various sections of the stitching 
room. For instance, quarter linings, top bands, 
button flies or side stays go to the tip-stitching sec- 
tion; tips go to the tip-stitching section; and the 
outside parts, vamps, vamp linings, and tongues, go 
to the vamping section. 

Positions in the Assembling Department. The 
positions in the assembling department are, the 
Foreman, floor girls, girls for casing up, for stamping 
linings, and for arranging tags in order of precedence, 
and a stock boy. 

Time and Pay Statistics in the Cutting Depart- 
ment. At the end of this and other chapters on 
factory departments are presented statistics se- 
lected from Bulletin Number two hundred sixty of 
the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, show- 
ing average and classified full-time hours per week, 
and rates of wages per hour, and average full-time 
weekly earnings in boot and shoe manufacture 



150 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

throughout the country from 1907 to 1918, and by 
states for 191 8. 

The figures here given are for a selected number 
of establishments, but may be regarded as repre- 
sentative of the entire industry, as according to the 
census of 19 10 more than ninety-seven per cent of 
the total number of employees in the industry were 
found in the states from which the information was 
secured. 

Among other things, it will be observed by Table 
X, on pages 151 and 152, that hand cutters, whose 
work is more exacting than that of machine cutters, 
received in 191 8 forty-eight and four-tenths cents 
per hour, or $25.06 a week; while machine cutters 
received forty-four and four-tenths cents per hour, 
or $23.04 per week. It will be seen, also, that male 
skivers in 191 8 received forty- two and three-tenths 
cents an hour or $21.55 a week; while female skivers 
received twenty-six and seven-tenths cents an hour, 
or $14.73 a week. In Table XI on page 153, may 
be seen the variations of earnings in these opera- 
tions in the great shoe manufacturing centers of the 
country. 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 151 



Table X* Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, in the 
United States, by Years, 1907 to 1918. 
[The figures set opposite each group of years are for identical establishments. 

When a second line is shown for 1918 it contains all data secured for 1918 whether 

or not comparable data were available for 1017.] 







n 


3 


u 




Employees whose full-time hours 











a? 




per week were — 






O 

Q. 
g 




g-g 


O 3 


■V'S 




Occupation, sex. 














and number of 


a 


V 


— s 


£ ,2 


~B v 


T3 






TT 






establishments 


r» 





3 u 






rt E, 






5 £ 










s 


"u & 




^3 


CO k, 


3 t 


S4 


■* 1- 


3 n 


60 






.0 

g 


bo 

a 


i-. 


m S 


si 


(3 




S"§ 


T3 O 
C 








a 


> 
< 


> 
< 


< 


> 3 

O 














Cutting Department 



Cutters, vamp 
and whole shoe, 
hand, male: 
20 establishments. . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


919 
907 
907 

852 


54-9 

54-8 
54-7 
54-7 


$0,325 
•332 
•340 
•345 


$17.84 
18.19 
18.60 
18.87 


II 
6 

14 
13 


157 
175 
159 
176 


343 
331 
346 
278 


252 
283 
286 
291 


156 
112 
102 
94 




48 establishments. . 


1910 
1911 


1,650 
1,602 


560 
56.2 


•319 

•317 


17.86 
17-75 


13 
14 


176 
158 


405 
425 


395 
398 


319 
311 


342 
296 


64 establishments. . 


1911 
1912 


2,066 
1,906 


56.2 

55-o 


•313 
■322 


I7-50 
17.63 


217 


158 
162 


589 

720 


587 
272 


384 
323 


348 
212 


71 establishments.. 


1912 
1913 


1,995 
1,987 


55-0 
54-5 


■322 
•351 


17.58 
1905 


242 
231 


162 
224 


738 
803 


297 
364 


336 
313 


220 

52 


68 establishments. . 


1913 
1914 


i>923 

i,757 


54-5 
S3-8 


•352 
.368 


19.10 
19.70 


211 

354 


224 
308 


803 
4°5 


350 
476 


283 
183 


52 
31 


69 establishments. . 


1914 
1916 


1,667 
1,790 


54-1 
54-i 


.366 
•379 


19.70 
20.42 


271 

255 


318 
335 


393 

481 


435 

468 


195 
193 


55 
58 


106 establishments 


1916 
1918 


2,257 
2,192 


53-9 
52.0 


■375 
.483 


20.12 

25.00 


434 
1,158 


380 
375 


547 
227 


593 
301 


240 
131 


63 


114 establishments 


1918 


2.319 


52.0 


.484 


25.06 


1,263 


375 


245 


3°3 


133 




Cutters, vamp 
and whole shoe, 
machine, male: 


1910 


235 


57.8 


.301 
.300 

■313 
•319 








13 


70 


98 


54 
34 

55 
49 




57 

57 
55 






09 

69 

54 








1911 
1912 


270 
300 



5 


17 
17 






59 
113 


69 


87 
85 




29 


24 


33 establishments. . 


1912 
1913 


490 
549 


55 
55 


8 
3 


•313 
•323 


17 
17 


36 

77 


29 
32 


24 
27 


186 

213 


41 
117 


124 
121 


86 
39 


35 establishments.. 


1913 
1914 


528 
568 


55 
55 


5 
I 


•322 
.328 


17 
17 


70 
96 


29 

58 


27 
20 


178 
133 


129 

228 


126 

124 


39 
5 


36 establishments. . 


1914 
1916 


600 

728 


55 

55 


5 
4 


.323 
•325 


17 
17 


s 4 

SO 


37 
37 


20 

24 


131 
172 


253 
336 


154 
152 


5 
7 



* From Table A — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot ond Shoe Industry, iqoj 
to 1918. United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



152 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Table X — Continued 



Occupation, sex, 
and number of 
establishments 





4> 


3 


<v 




£ 


-a 




*i 


a 


0) 


^3 
<u 


o 




-i £ 


"3^ 


>< 




3 h 


<- u 












x> 


o P. 






B 


c$ 


u 






V 






£ 


< 


< 


1916 


974 


54-9 


$0,327 


1918 


1.130 


52.1 


•444 


1918 


1,202 


52-2 


•444 


1910 


74 


54-7 


.288 


1911 


79 


54-7 


■314 


1911 


136 


54-8 


.292 


1912 


146 


54-6 


.289 


1912 


IS6 


S4-7 


.282 


1913 


134 


54-5 


•299 


1913 


123 


54-3 


.300 


1914 


107 


54-2 


•304 


1914 


93 


54-1 


.318 


1916 


92 


54- 1 


•33i 


1916 


91 


S3- 6 


■329 


1918 


85 


51.0 


•437 


1918 


96 


S°-9 


•423 


1907 


74 


56.1 


.188 


1908 


70 


56.5 


.192 


1009 


79 


S6-3 


.191 


igio 


85 


56.0 


•195 


1910 


338 


57-° 


• 175 


1911 


314 


57-3 


.176 


1911 


374 


57-o 


.176 


1912 


345 


SS-i 


.191 


1912 


371 


SS-o 


•193 


1913 


439 


54-0 


.209 


1913 


439 


54-6 


.207 


1914 


402 


54-o 


.211 


1914 


418 


54-i 


.207 


1916 


466 


54-2 


.205 


1916 


571 


S4-° 


.208 


1918 


623 


Si-7 


.266 


1918 


697 


51.7 


.267 



$* 



Employees whose full-time hours 
per week were — 



60 



56 establishments. . 



66 establishments. . 

Skivers, upper, 
machine, male: 
12 establishments.. 



28 establishments. . 
32 establishments.. 

22 establishments. . 
19 establishments. . 
18 establishments. . 

23 establishments. . 

Skivers, upper, 
machine, female: 
13 establishments.. 

49 establishments. . 
60 establishments. . 
67 establishments. . 
65 establishments.. 
72 establishments.. 
104 establishments 
121 establishments 



$17.86 
23.88 



15-80 
17-15 

15.98 
15-73 

15-41 
16.23 

16.26 
16.47 

17.21 
17.87 

17.81 
22.31 



10.75 
10.92 



9.94 
9-97 



9-97 
10.54 



10.58 
11.38 



11.29 
11-35 



n. 16 
11.09 



11.23 

13-71 



in 

2 618 



; 6 4 7 



26 



X 3I7 

^es 



s 4 



5S 



100 
84 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



153 



Table XI* Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
or Wages per Hour and Average Full-Tlme Weekly Earnings, by States, 
1918. 



Occupation, sex, and State 



£.2 



16 



.a v 



> a 
< & 



is 



Cutting Department 



Cutters, vamp and whole shoe, 
hand, male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Wisconsin 

Other States 

Total 



Cutters, vamp and whole shoe, 
machine, male: 

Massachusetts 

Missouri 

New Hampshire 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 

Total 

Skivers, upper, machine, male: 

Massachusetts 

New York 

Other States 

Total 



66 



161 

43 

914 

65 

320 

61 

46 

285 

153 

194 

32 



539 
142 
170 
140 
64 



96 



50.9 

54-1 
5I-I 
54-7 
5°-4 
50.6 
S5-o 
51.6 
54-6 
55-4 
54-5 
54-4 



52.0 



S0.3 
S2-8 
52. 2 



$0,552 

•493 

503 
394 
499 
391 
347 
525 
496 
383 
385 
358 



So. 484 



•47° 
•347 
.460 
•449 
•392 
.308 
.466 



$0,444 



.421 
.641 
•311 



$0,423 



$28.02 
26.67 
25.60 
21-54 
25.10 
19.78 
19.06 
27.09 
27.11 
21.28 
21.00 
19-45 



$25.06 



2403 
19.78 
2317 
21.94 
21.58 
16.86 
25.26 



$23-04 



21.15 

33-88 
16.22 



$21.55 



*From Table C — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Bool and Shoe Industry: 
igo7 to iqiq. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



i54 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table XL* — Continued. Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week 
and Rates of Wages per Hour and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, 
by States 1918. 



Occupation, sex, and State 




"■5 a 



Cutting Department 



Skivers, upper, machine, female: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Other States 

Total 



8 


55 


52.0 


S 


17 


54-o 


43 


208 


51.8 


3 


24 


53-3 


12 


80 


52-4 


9 


76 


50.2 


3 


11 


54-5 - 


13 


79 


5°-2 


7 


59 


50.0 


9 


42 


S2-S 


3 


IS 


54-o 


4 


22 


54-1 


2 

121 


9 


54-° 


697 


51-7 



$0,240 
.310 
.286 

.210 

•249 
.306 

■215 

.296 

•23s 
•234 
.231 

.221 
.162 



$0,267 



$12.71 
16.74 
14.74 
II. 18 
13-02 

15-36 

11.67 
14.81 

n-73 
12.39 
12.48 
"•95 
8.72 



$14-73 



* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 
igoy to 1 gig. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 

The stitching department is that division of the 
factory in which the outer parts of the upper of the 
shoe, the linings, and the trimmings are sewed to- 
gether upon machines, ready for putting upon the 
last. In some factories this division is called the 
" fitting room." Female employees generally work 
in this department, but at present men are being 
employed more and more on the vamping machines 
and other heavy parts of stitching. In a factory 
having 5,000 employees about 1,400 are found in the 
stitching department. The machines used in the 
stitching room are similar to the ordinary sewing 
machine used in the home. 

Variations in Stitching Room Processes. Methods 
and details in the stitching departments differ more 
than in the cutting and other departments of the 
shoe factory, because of the many parts composing 
the upper of the shoe. There are more processes 
involved in the making of women's shoes, with the 
constant striving after style and effect, than in men's 
shoes, in which plainness and serviceable qualities 
are desired. Processes may be modified, also, in 

15s 



156 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



making children's and infants' footwear. Different 
kinds of shoes, as high, low, and pumps, require 
variations in the methods of sewing the various parts 
of the upper. Altogether the stitching department 
involves a large number of processes of minute detail 




A Division of the Stitching Room 

and possibility of variation. The generally pre- 
vailing methods are here presented. 

The Number and Divisions of the Parts to be 
Stitched. For the uppers of an ordinary pair of 
button boots, as an example, there are forty-four 
different pieces of material. The stitching is done 
upon many of these parts simultaneously before the 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 157 

upper is ready for lasting. The size is marked upon 
every part. The linings and the trimmings are 
given to one division of operators, the outsides to 
another, and the vamps and tips to still another 
division. All these parts meet again when each 
has been sewed, and are inspected and sent on to 
the lasting room. 

The Divisions of This Department. The natural 
divisions of this department are shown in the chart 
on page 158. They are, the Lining department, the 
tip department, closing and staying, foxing, top 
stitching, or closing on and top stitching, and the 
button hole, vamping, and toe closing department. 

The Lining Department. In the lining depart- 
ment various parts of the lining are pasted and sewed 
together in preparation for the tcp stitching depart- 
ment, where the lining as a whole will be sewed to 
the upper of the shoe. Each operation here spoken 
of may be a single process or may represent several 
minor processes. First the lining is closed or sewed 
in a seam, and taped, or stayed up and down the 
heel. The top band is sewed on. The button fly, 
which has a reinforcement in the man's shoe, is 
also stitched on. A lining is stitched upon the 
tongue for some shoes. The vamp lining is ce- 
mented merely to hold it in place for later sewing. 
Labels are stitched on the lining of the inside of the 
heel for Oxford shoes, and on the inside of the top 



158 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



CHART OF THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



Lining Department 



Tip Department 



Closing and Staying Department 



Foxing Department 



Top Stitching Department 



Button Hole Department 



Vamping Department 



Toe Closing Department 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 159 

of the lining for boots. The more common kinds 
of boots, for instance, are, the button, the Polish, 
the Blucher; of low shoes, the Oxford and the 
pump. 

Positions in the Lining Department. The usual 
positions in the lining department of the stitching 
room are, the Superintendent, the forewoman, the 
inspector, operators on the closing of linings, on 
the staying of linings, on sewing of top bands, and 
on attaching labels, the floor girls, and a cripple 
girl who attends to all imperfect work. 

The Tip Department. The tip department is 
that section of the stitching room in which the tip 
receives special preparation for its place in the com- 
plete upper, and in which it is sewed to the vamp. 
Tips come from the cutting room tied in bunches 
separate from the other parts of the shoe. In the 
tip department they are skived, perforated, and 
fitted with linings according to use on particular 
vamps, or, in other words, on shoes of particular 
styles. Usually a box to give reinforcement and 
style to the tips is cemented inside of it before the 
lining is inserted, and before the tip is stitched to 
the vamp. The tip may be skived and folded in, 
perforated, nicked, scalloped, or plain, each process 
involved belonging to this department. The lining 
is cemented in, taped over seams, and pressed firmly 
in place upon a machine, and the whole is top- 



i6o 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



stitched on a machine, through leather and lining, 
just below the line of perforation. Then the tip 





■■'■■' I m ^^HHH 

§ Mil £-'-'} r; ! 


1 








"-•:;''] 
^ 




" 1. 1 ' 





Operating the Tip Punching Machine 

is stitched above the perforation to the vamp of the 
upper; and this part of the upper is ready for the 
vamping department. 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 161 

Perforating. Perforating deserves special men- 
tion since it gives style to the tip, and is of itself an 
interesting process and a good example of intricacy 
in shoemaking processes. A series of ornamental 
perforations is stamped by a combination of small 
dies upon the " power tip press " or upon the " per- 
forating machine." The holes thus stamped take 
particular styles which are known in the shoe facto- 
ries by numbers. For instance, perforation " num- 
ber 69 " consists of a large hole and a small one 
alternating in a line near the edge of the tip, over 
the top, thus: O0O0O0, and " number 70 " consists 
of a large hole alternating with two small ones, 
thus: O00O00O. The size of the holes may vary. 
If you will look at the tip of your shoes you will 
probably find one of these styles or a variation of 
them. 

The machine feeds itself automatically, dieing the 
full perforation accurately at one stroke for each 
tip, as the tips pass through in line upon a moving 
band of paper, which prevents dulling the die. This 
machine is used also for perforating larger parts of 
shoes, such as vamps, foxings, and ornamental 
" winged tips." 

Positions in the Tip Department. The positions 
in the tip department are numerous and may be 
shown more clearly, as will other departments having 
many positions in the following pages, by a numbered 



1 62 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

list as follows, using the terms which are common 
in the factory: 

i. The Superintendent, in a large factory. 

2. Forewoman. 

3. Quality Inspector. 

4. Lining Closers. 

5. Stayers. 

6. Toe Piece Ironers. 

7. Tapers. 

8. Reinforcers. 

9. Tip Markers. 

10. Toe Lining Reinforcers. 
n. Tip Pressers. 

12. Vamp Pressers. 

13. Vamp Perforators. 

14. Box Cementers. 

15. Stitchers of tongue to vamp. 

16. Tip Perforators. 

17. Tip Blackers. 

18. Stitchers of tip and vamp. 

19. Floor Girls. 

20. Cripple Girls. 

21. " Hustle Girls," who look up the dates upon 
the tags and keep orders moving in their proper 
sequence. 

The Closing and Staying Department. The clos- 
ing and staying department deals with cementing, 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 163 

sewing and securing the seams of the top of the 
upper, the part above the foxing and toe of all kinds 
of shoes, following the work done upon the linings 
and tips. First, the button fly is pressed, then 
closed or sewed to one quarter and the two quarters 
of the top are sewed together. The top piece is 
cemented on the inside of the large quarter, which 
bears the button fly, and the quarter is stayed. The 
top of the button Oxford is ironed out at the heel 
seam, and a reinforcement ironed upon the button 
fly. The Blucher Oxford is nicked and pressed. A 
paper reinforcement is ironed upon the inside of 
the top of the circular pump. Bows of various 
kinds and colors are made by the machines for 
Oxfords, and fastened upon them by a machine which 
drives a metal reinforcement into the bow. Canvas 
stays are put in the top of Oxfords. A long vamp 
is reinforced for eyelets, and a stay is cemented in 
when blind eyelets are to be inserted. Perforations 
are sometimes covered with imitation reinforcements 
on the inside, or stitched around the outside. Per- 
foration upon the top has tape placed on the inside 
and stitched underneath. Buckle straps and instep 
straps are attached to some styles of shoes. 

There are many such operations in this division 
of the stitching department, according to the par- 
ticular kinds of shoes made in a factory. Each 
style is kept separate in going through the depart- 



1 64 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

merit. Stitching machines are now made for use 
upon certain styles and parts of shoes only, special- 
ization in machinery extending to the most minute 
parts of processes throughout the factory. 

Positions in the Closing and Staying Department. 
The usual positions in this department are as follows: 

i. Forewoman, or assistants to foreman. 

2. Inspectors. 

3. Instructor. 

4. Closers. 

5. Label Girls and Cementers. 

6. Button Fly Pressers. 

7. Button Fly Reinforcers. 

8. Stayers. 

9. Toe Piece Reinforcers. 
10. Cementers and Pressers. 
n. Floor Girl. 

12. Checker Girl, who checks off all numbers of 
lots so that it may be known when the parts are 
all done and have gone to the next department. 

The Foxing Department. The foxing department 
is one of the smallest divisions of the stitching room. 
The foxing is a little piece of upper leather below 
the quarters on each side of the heel, put on all kinds 
of boots and Oxfords. Foxing is used on both the 
high and the low styles of footwear. It is both plain 
and ornamented, according to the style and quality 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 165 

of the shoe. Back straps and fly stays are stitched 
upon the quarters to which the foxing is attached, 
and then the foxing, ornamented with perforations 
in this department, if need be, is stitched upon the 
quarters, sometimes with one row of stitching and 
sometimes with two rows. The operations are the 
same with canvas as with leather uppers. The work 
when done and checked off on the day sheet goes to 
the top stitching department. 

The ordinary Polish shoe, not the Blucher, and 
the Oxford shoe, both Blucher and common, have a 
long vamp and no foxing. 

Several related or similar operations, also, are 
performed in the foxing department, such as sewing 
loops at the top of the back of the shoe, on men's 
shoes, and sewing on buckle straps. 

Positions in the Foxing Department. The usual 
positions here are these: 

1 . Forewoman, or assistants to foreman. 

2. Teacher. 

3. Inspector. 

4. Perforators. 10. Floor Girls. 

5. Back Strap Stitchers. 11. Cripple Girls. 

6. Side Stay Stitchers. 12. Checker Girls. 

7. Binders. 

8. Button Fly Face Stitchers. 

9. Foxing Stitchers. 



1 66 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The Top Stitching Department. The top stitching 
department is the division of the stitching room in 
which the tops, the leather upper part, coming from 
the foxing department, and the linings, from the 
lining department, are sewed together. Quarters 
and linings are first matched upon tables and tied 
together in bundles, according to tag numbers. This 
work is done by floor girls, who give the bundles 
thus matched to the machine operators. In some 
factories vamps are sewed on at the same time as 
the tops and linings are sewed together. 

The methods of the department vary, as in other 
sections of the factory, according to the style of 
shoes being made. Generally the quarters and lining 
are put together back to back, or wrong side out, 
and stitched along the edge of the top. Then the 
top is turned and the seam is pounded out so that 
the edge of the leather on the right side comes out 
true and flat. Then this part goes to the top stitcher, 
who sews it all around except at the bottom where 
the vamp is still to be attached. The side of the 
quarter on which the buttons are to be sewed on the 
button shoe is pinked or notched upon the edge in 
case of a raw edge of the lining and the leather sewed 
together. Usually in the case of canvas shoes vamp- 
ing is done in this department before top stitching. 

More men are found in this department than in 
the other divisions of the stitching room because the 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 167 

work is sometimes heavier and more exacting, calling 
for considerable strength when followed from day 
to day, as well as for skill. The parts must be sewed, 
carefully turned and thoroughly beaten, and sewed 
again in finished form, making altogether, perhaps, 
the most difficult work of the stitching room, and 
the department is the largest division of the stitching 
room. 

Positions in the Top Stitching Department. The 
positions in this section are the following: 

1. Forewoman. 

2. Teacher. 

3. Inspector. 

4. Operators of closing on machines. 

5. Operators for turning and pounding top. 

6. Top Stitchers. 

7. Vampers. 

8. Floor Girls. 

9. Cripple Girls. 

The Button Hole Department. The button hole 
department includes the making of button holes and 
the inserting of eyelets. The tops of button and of 
lace shoes come from the top stitching department 
to this department. The small quarter under the 
button fly is pinked, and the fly is marked for button 
holes by means of a perforated pattern through 
which the places for buttons are marked by hand 



1 68 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

with a pencil or yellow crayon. Then the button 
holes are inserted by a power machine which cuts 
the hole and works it around at the same time. In 
eyeleting the upper is marked by hand for the eyelet. 
Then the eyelet is inserted on a machine. A 
machine has recently come into use which inserts 
eyelets in both sides of the top at the same time. In 
the case of " blind eyelets " a hole is stamped through 
the leather, lining, and reinforcement. The leather 
is then held back by the operator and the eyelets 
are stamped through the lining and the reinforce- 
ment, the leather only showing on the outside of 
the hole. In some factories blind eyelets are in- 
serted as a single process on an automatic machine. 
In men's high lace shoes hooks are inserted by a 
machine above the rows of eyelets. Raw edges are 
blacked or colored so as to make the edge of the 
lining resemble the leather. 

Pairs of tops are now examined for matching and 
are tagged by sizes ready for vamping. 

Positions in the Button Hole Department. The 
usual positions in the button hole section are as 
follows : 

i. Forewoman. 

2. Teacher. 

3. Inspector. 

4. Quarter Pinkers. 

5. Button Hole Markers. 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 169 

6. Button Hole Workers. 

7. Machine Eyeleters. 

8. Button Hole Finishers. 

9. Button Hole Trimmers. 

10. Operators for Cording the cloth button shoe. 

11. Edge Blackers. 

12. Girls for Matching and Tagging pairs. 

13. Floor Girls. 

14. Cripple Girls. 

The Vamping Department. The vamp is the 
lower, front part of the shoe upper. It is the most 
important part of the upper and should be cut from 
the best of leather. The " cut off vamp " extends 
only to the shoe tip. The whole vamp extends from 
toe to heel with a seam at the heel only. Vamping 
consists in stitching the vamp to the quarters of 
the top. While some vamping may be done in the 
top stitching department, the process itself is an 
important one, and is a separate section in a factory. 
Vamps are first centered by being folded and marked 
in the center of the throat. Then the vamp is 
stitched to the quarters, each style of shoe calling 
for its special process. Usually leather parts only 
are sewed, the lining being held back. 

Vamping is the most painstaking work of the 
stitching room and the best paying. Judgment and 
carefulness are absolutely essential to the operator. 
Three-fourths of the vampers are men. Hand 



170 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



strength is necessary in the heavier kinds of vamp- 
ing, to pull and hold parts in place while they are 
being stitched, and to guide the work through the 
machine. 

Positions in the Vamping Department. The few 
positions of the vamping department are, the Super- 
intendent, foreman, man instructor, inspector, 
vampers, floor girls, cripple girls, and checker. 




Lacing Uppers on the Ensign Lacing Machine 



The Toe Closing Department. The toe closing 
department is the final division of stitching. The 
toes of all linings are made in two pieces. When 
the toe closing department is reached tops and linings 
have been stitched together and vamps have been 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 171 

sewed to the tops. In the toe closing department 
the leather vamp is held back and the two parts of 
the toe lining, one being laid flat upon the other 
so as to avoid a thick seam, are doubled stitched. 
This is a quick and easy operation. 

Several other processes best done at this stage of 
shoemaking are performed in this department. In 
button shoes the side of the top which is to bear 
the buttons is marked for the buttons through the 
holes of the other side, by hand. Then the buttons 
are sewed on by a machine operator. Then comes 
the process of barring, or inserting a few stitches 
on a machine just below the buttons and above the 
vamp. Button Oxfords are fully buttoned, high 
button shoes only part way, in preparation for last- 
ing. Laced shoes are laced by hand or on a machine. 
Lots are made ready by tags and numbers for the 
lasters. 

Positions in the Toe Closing Department. The 
positions in this division are, the Superintendent, 
forewoman, inspector, toe closers, markers for but- 
tons, button sewers, operators of barring machines, 
girls for buttoning and lacing shoes, floor girls, 
cripple girls, and packers who sort cases of lots of 
shoes for lasting. 

Operating Stitching Machines. The stitching de- 
partment deserves special mention on account of 
its magnitude, intricate processes, and peculiar 
machines. 



172 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Machine operators in the stitching room generally 
learn on inside work ; as linings, or by work upon 
cheaper leather parts, or by low grade work. In 
certain seasons of the year there is a transfer of 
operators from department to department, according 
to need. Some operators know how to run a number 
of machines, frequently being taught to run a second 
one as if just entering the factory. The difficulty 
of handling a power sewing machine, as of a power 
machine in general, is to know when to start and 
when to stop the machine. On all machines the 
start is made by pressing the toe, and the stop by 
pressing the heel. Sometimes a factory has a special 
room where not only the processes of stitching take 
place but all other processes as well, for the making 
of special " hurry orders " of shoes. 

Some automatic machines produce in operators, 
especially in the case of girls, the particular move- 
ment of the machine so that the operator responds 
to the motion, swinging" or jumping the entire body 
or exhibiting a nervous, spasmodic action. This 
is especially noticeable in running the barring ma- 
chine in which the part bearing the needle rises and 
springs towards the operator at each operation, and 
upon machines having an eccentric movement. In 
such cases operators are usually transferred in time 
to different or less injurious machines or processes. 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



173 



Table XII. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, in the 
United States, by Years, 1907 to 1918. 















Employees whose full-time 








ail 


"o 3 


a aO 


hours per week were — 




u 


v. & 


3 h 


Si 


3='S 

3 rt 




Occupation, sex, and 


-a 






T3 







number of establish- 


V 


■0°, 

a c- 
3 a 


"" 0. 


M 0- 


t) U 


cS ir-. 


•0 J, 




a) {^ 




ments 


r* 


6fi in 


<S $ 


M_>i 




S w. 


^f 


•+1- 


§ M 


O 






fc" 


bt 3 


> 5 




-a 
S c 


\n C 




b"S 


SR"S 


-O 








< 


< 1* 


^* 


> - 

O 


3 




£ 3 


3 





Fitting or Stitching Department 



Tip stitchers, fe- 
male: 
36 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


134 
137 


55 
55 


8 
2 


$0,205 
.216 


$11.38 
11.87 




10 
12 


33 
68 


32 
17 


49 
40 


5 


79 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


335 
337 


54 

54 


9 

7 


.208 
.219 


11.36 
11.94 


10 
10 


17 
27 


186 

175 


48 
78 


68 
47 


6 


75 establishments... . 


1913 
1914 


329 
323 


54 
54 


(> 
1 


.218 
.218 


11. 91 
11.82 


10 
10 


27 
47 


171 
182 


79 

75 


42 
14 




75 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


326 
326 


54 
54 


2 
2 


.218 
.226 


11. 81 
12.24 


10 
11 


47 
47 


170 
180 


82 
7i 


17 
17 




114 establishments.. . 


1916 
191S 

1918 


416 

407 

437 


54 




8 


.230 


12.64 
14-95 

14.86 


23 
195 

213 


56 
74 

74 


241 

Tl8 


76 


20 




1 25 establishments. . . 


51-8 


.288 


127 


20 


3 




Backstay stitchers, 
female: 


1907 
igo8 
1909 
1910 


81 
78 
91 
95 


56.6 
56.5 
56.3 
56.2 


.171 
.186 

.177 
.179 


9.6S 
10.51 

9-97 
10.06 






15 
13 
21 
16 


18 
23 

25 

25 


48 
42 
45 

54 




























49 establishments. . . . 


1910 
1911 


3°7 
299 


56.6 
56.6 


.177 
.1S0 


9-95 
10.16 


1 

1 


32 
28 


35 
36 


88 
79 


84 
99 


67 
56 


67 establishments.. . . 


1911 
1912 


392 
378 


56.5 

55-2 


.185 
.189 


10.42 

10.42 


11 


28 

8 


69 
203 


no 

41 


121 
97 


64 
18 


78 establishments 


1912 
1913 


426 
389 


55- 1 
54-7 


.187 
• 195 


10.31 
10.62 


12 
11 


8 
12 


231 

208 


48 
114 


109 

44 


18 


73 establishments... . 


1913 
1914 


379 
399 


54-6 

54-2 


.192 
.196 


10.49 
io.59 


II 
13 


12 
39 


206 
227 


112 

104 


38 
16 




72 establishments.. . . 


1914 
1916 


3Si 
405 


54-3 
54.2 


.198 
.207 


10.72 
11.23 


13 
11 


39 

43 


190 

235 


119 
93 


20 
23 





* From Table A. Wages and Bouts of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 
iqo? to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



174 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



TABLE XII — Continued 















Employees whose full-time 








s-* 


° 3 


S M 


hours per week were — 




M 


51 *i 


Is 


« 8 


•2 S 




Occupation, sex, and 


-a 






■s» 


■"d \o 




number of establish- 


V 


.no 


~ft. 




at. in 


-a "■> 




p3 i^ 




ments 


'^ 




1-. 3 






00 u 


1H 




in a) 


^ 











^ 


<!& 




I" 


■2 




>3 

o 


^ 







Fitting 


DR STITCHINC 


Department 










Backstay stitchers, 
female: 
in establishments... 


1916 
1918 

1918 


536 
S°o 

S60 


S4-o 

51.8 

Si-9 


.211 
.264 

.261 


11. 41 
13-62 

13-49 


35 
251 

276 


61 

6t 


308 
164 

192 


108 

24 

24 


24 




124 establishments.. . 


61 


7 




Lining makers, fe- 
male: 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


124 
112 

122 
1 54 


56.2 
56.1 
56-0 
55-9 


■175 
.165 
• 173 
.163 


9.84 
9.26 
9.69 
9.11 






24 
24 
28 
33 


44 
42 
46 
55 


56 
46 
48 
66 




























S3 establishments. . . . 


1910 
1911 


585 
576 


56.5 
56.5 


.164 
.162 


9.19 
9.08 


2 
3 


88 
81 


76 
75 


"145 
162 


141 
154 


133 
101 


72 establishments.. . . 


1911 
1912 


721 
706 


56.5 
55-o 


.166 
.171 


9.28 
9-36 


21 


81 
39 


136 
373 


igo 

85 


189 
161 


125 

27 


80 establishments 


1912 
1913 


764 
854 


S5-o 
54-6 


.170 
.190 


9-3i 
10.38 


21 
29 


39 

47 


391 
469 


98 
199 


188 
no 


27 


76 establishments.. . . 


1913 
1914 


833 
804 


54-5 
53-9 


.190 
.188 


10.31 
10.15 


29 

52 


47 
134 


457 
409 


199 

177 


101 
32 




76 establishments.. . . 


1914 
1916 


796 
769 


54-1 
54-1 


.190 
.200 


10.24 
ict.78 


52 
51 


134 
97 


366 
409 


197 
*S5 


47 
57 




120 establishments.. . 


1916 
1918 

1918 


961 


53-9 
5i-5 

5i-5 


.198 
.242 

.241 


10.68 
12.42 

12.35 


91 
615 

669 


118 


53i 
297 

320 


164 


57 




132 establishments.. . 


1,138 


no 


33 


6 




Closers-on. female: 
18 establishments.. . . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


104 

100 

101 

95 


55-3 
S5-i 
SS-i 
S5-o 


.200 
.190 
.207 
.198 


11.06 
10.47 
1 1. 41 
10.89 




17 
20 
19 
23 


25 

21 
19 
19 


34 
41 

45 
34 


28 
18 
18 
19 




49 establishments. . . . 


1910 
1911 


262 
277 


57- 1 
57-i 


.178 
.178 


10.13 
10.09 


I 
I 


23 
5 


34 
36 


57 
89 


60 

72 


87 

74 


65 establishments... . 


ign 
1912 


35o 
33i 


S6.9 
54-9 


.180 
.187 


10.18 
10.21 


15 


5 
16 


62 
178 


108 
36 


88 
7i 


87 
IS 


74 establishments. . . . 


1912 
1913 


344 
349 


55-o 
54-4 


.186 
.194 


10.17 
10.53 


15 
18 


16 
17 


182 
206 


40 
73 


76 
35 


IS 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



175 



TABLE XII. — Concluded 









V 






Employees whose full-time 








S-* 


"8g 


■5 c 


hours per week were — 


Occupation, sex, and 


H 


s & 


3 u 




-A 3 

3 c3 


-0 


is 




T3 






number of establish- 
ments 


!* 


6 0. 

, 5 F 




&& 
g 2 


£l£> 


00 t. 


■* 


■* Jj 











'A « 


P3 


> a 


<3 u 


S 3 


to C 




^"O 


fcfl 










<"= 


< % 


<* 


> 3 
O 


3 




> 3 
O 


3 




Fitting or Stitching Department 


69 establishments. . . . 


IQI.S 


337 


54-4 


.191 


io-39 


14 


17 


203 


73 


3° — 




1914 


325 


53-8 


• 193 


10.36 


28 


54 


170 


63 


10. . . . 


51 establishments.. . . 


1914 


259 


53-8 


• 195 


10.51 


28 


36 


124 


60 


11... . 




1916 


249 


53-8 


.199 


10.69 


18 


38 


153 


30 


10. . . . 


68 establishments.. . . 


igi6 


3°5 


53-4 


.201 


10.77 


38 


54 


180 


26 


7 — 




1918 


287 


52.1 


• 235 


12.24 


4 113 


45 


i°3 


20 




90 establishments. . . . 


1918 


3Si 


52.0 


• 237 


12.28 


5 155 


47 


"S 


29 


5.... 



176 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table XIII. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, in the 
United States, by Years, 1907 to 1918. 















Employees whose full-time 






<M 


E-* 

■ - <D 


"8 3 


E & 


hours per week were — 


Occupation, sex, and 


h 


9. >> 


=3 £ 

3 h 




=11 


T3 
(3 M 
c3 10 






£3 t^ 

c« in 






number of establish- 


V 


,2 E 


u O. 


OJ 0, 


^ a) 






T30 




ments 


bOjn 


2 <5 


<U V 

> S 
< * 


CO n 


B fr! 


*fr 


•*>- 


g g 


-S 






£* <u 


3* 


a) be 
< £ 


« S 
O 






> 3 








Fitting or Stitching Department 



Top stitchers or un- 
der-trimmers, female: 
17 establishments.. 



S3 establishments. . . . 
73 establishments.. . . 
82 establishments. . . . 
77 establishments.. . . 
77 establishments.. . . 
1 23 establishments. . . 

135 establishments... 

Button fasteners, 
female: 
26 establishments. . . . 

72 establishments.. . . 

66 establishments. . . . 

60 establishments. . . . 

51 establishments.. . . 

64 establishments.. . . 



1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 

1910 
1911 

1911 
1912 

1912 
1913 

1913 
1914 

1914 
1916 

1916 
1918 

1918 



1911 
1912 



1912 
1913 



1913 
1914 



1914 
1916 



1916 
1918 



1918 



144 
156 
164 

721 
742 

911 
95° 

1,033 
1,070 

1,033 
1,005 

1,004 
1,101 

1.392 
1,262 

1,364 



205 
232 



136 

85 



S6.3 
S6.3 
S6.3 
56.0 

S6.9 
56.8 

S6.7 
54-9 

54-9 
54-6 

54-5 
54-1 

54-1 
54-1 

54-o 
5i-5 

51.6 



5°-4 
55-9 



55-3 
54-8 



54-7 
53-7 



53-7 
53-9 



53-7 
32-7 



$0,185 
.190 

.196 
.200 



.198 
.210 



.211 
.211 



.212 
.214 



.220 
.287 



.285 



$10.42 
10.70 
11.03 
11.20 

10.69 
10.83 

IO-95 
10.82 

10.81 
11.47 

11.46 
H-39 

11.46 
n-55 

11.84 
14.61 



9.78 
IO-9S 

10.70 
10.57 

10.32 
11.28 

11.30 
n-95 

12.06 



30 
31 
31 
32 

in 
109 

183 
521 

572 
573 

558 
524 

5°9 
61 2 

811 

358 



169 



26 



203 
165 



185 

27 



* From Table A. Wages and Hours of Labor in the Bool and Shoe Industry 
IQ07 to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 

TABLE XIII. — Continued 



177 















Employees whose full-time 








£•? 


3 


5 to 


hours per week were — 






"S 8 


'J 0) 

- & 


i> O 


•-.a 


















Occupation, sex, and 
number of establish- 
ments 




js 

- E 


3 >-. 

so v. 


bo" 
2 8 

t> 60 


,3 S 
«3 


T3 

e » 

00 1- 

*-8 


* 

a) 53 
mT3 


■* 


3 t^ 


cs J; 





































<"* 


< * 


< * 


> 3 



3 




> 3 




3 





Fitting or Stitching Department 



Buttonhole makers, 
female: 
33 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


108 
168 


56.3 
55-4 


.176 
.180 


9-83 
9.96 




2 

17 


29 

79 


23 

8 


48 
64 


6 


74 establishments. . . . 


1912 
1013 


468 
51/ 


55- 1 
54-7 


.180 
■ 194 


9.87 
10.60 


12 
6 


27 
41 


257 
306 


41 
70 


in 

94 


20 


71 establishments.. . . 


1913 
1914 


489 
477 


54-6 
53-8 


.192 
.200 


10.50 
10.76 


6 
46 


41 
99 


302 
231 


69 

70 


71 
31 




73 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


484 
369 


53-9 
54-o 


.196 
■ 213 


10.55 
11.50 


46 
26 


99 
79 


223 
193 


78 
45 


38 
26 




76 establishments.. . . 


1916 
1918 


362 
133 


53-7 
52-2 


.214 
.261 


11.49 
1361 


39 
56 


79 
13 


175 
56 


57 
S 


12 




82 establishments.. . . 


1918 


140 


52.2 


.262 


1362 


59 


13 


5S 


8 


2 




Eyeleters, female: 
92 establishments. . . . 


1918 


223 


51-7 


.268 


13.64 


115 


38 


57 


13 






Vampers, male: 
13 establishments.. . . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


167 

99 

15° 

134 


54-9 
55-2 
54-6 
54-5 


.318 
.287 
.287 
.294 


17.46 
1584 
1567 
16.02 




7 
18 

58 
48 


119 

41 
5i 

46 


9 

15 
21 

18 


32 
25 
20 

22 




33 establishments.. . . 


1910 
1911 


263 

249 


55-5 
55-7 


• 293 
•303 


16.24 
16.88 




48 
21 


67 
69 


63 
81 


57 
S3 


28 
25 


Si establishments.. . . 


1911 
1912 


343 
435 


55-5 
54-9 


■315 
310 


17.42 
16.97 


15 


21 

56 


138 
199 


94 

57 


61 
93 


29 
15 


66 establishments. . . . 


1912 
1913 


483 
554 


55o 
54-8 


.306 
.320 


16.76 

17-47 


15 
12 


56 
74 


215 
227 


67 
164 


112 
72 


18 

S 


57 establishments.. . . 


1913 
1914 


53i 
5i5 


54-7 
54-5 


•320 
•315 


17.44 
17-13 


12 
6 


74 
89 


225 
195 


1 S3 
187 


62 
36 


5 

2 


S3 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


479 
496 


54-5 
54-7 


•3" 
•332 


16.95 
18.12 


6 

7 


91 
73 


188 
205 


149 

146 


39 
56 


6 
9 


69 establishments. . . . 


1916 
1918 


586 
S07 


54-7 
51.6 


•334 

•447 


18.20 
23-OS 


13 

307 


58 
89 


241 
64 


210 
21 


55 
23 


9 
3 


83 establishments.. . . 


1918 


573 


51-5 


.442 


22.73 


366 


90 


69 


22 


23 


3 



178 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Table XIII. — Concluded 





8 




.13 
SO tn 

S3 
|i 


so" 

2 a, 

<D SO 
> £ 


B so 
■J3 S 
j/3 
"3 8 

fap>> 

II 


Employees whose full-time 
hours per week were — 


Occupation, sex, and 
number of establish- 
ments 


13 

a H 

00 u 

> 3 
O 


10 a 

3 


■* 


-a 
§£ 

* u 

> 3 

O 


_. 

B u 

3 







Fitting or Stitching 


Department] 






Vampers, female: 
22 establishments.. . . 


1907 
1908 
igog 
1910 


3SI 

321 
391 

366 


55-7 
55-9 
55-5 
55-5 


.246 
.242 
•253 
•257 


13-70 

13-53 

14.04 
14.26 


4 
3 
5 
6 


54 
18 
77 
39 


56 
60 
66 
67 


105 
ng 
123 
129 


132 
121 
120 
125 




S3 establishments. . . . 


1910 
1911 


863 

909 


56.9 
56.7 


.238 
.238 


13.46 
13-43 


20 
26 


39 

45 


125 
138 


206 
229 


241 
268 


232 
203 


71 establishments.. . . 


ign 
1912 


1,124 
1,019 


S6.5 
5S-i 


.238 
•233 


13.46 
12.84 


21 
15 


45 

66 


191 

546 


291 
107 


315 
237 


26l 

48 


79 establishments.. . . 


igi2 
1913 


1,088 

1,072 


5S.-I 
54-7 


.231 
.246 


12.68 
13-45 


15 

14 


66 

72 


575 
620 


121 
216 


263 
150 


48 


77 establishments.. . . 


1913 
1914 


1,052 
1,037 


54-6 
53-9 


.246 

.244 


13.40 
13-13 


14 
80 


72 
181 


620 
513 


216 
209 


130 

54 




75 establishments.. . . 


1914 
1916 


1,027 
1,065 


S4-o 
54-i 


.242 
■252 


i3-°6 
13-61 


80 

44 


181 

185 


468 
580 


245 
182 


S3 

74 




114 establishments.. . 


1916 
1918 


1,351 

i,3S3 


53-9 
51.6 


■ 253 
•313 


l3-6o 
16.15 


108 
' 716 


245 
166 


73° 

409 


191 

62 


77 




132 establishments.. . 


1918 


1,477 


51.7 


.312 


16. 11 


777 


166 


447 


62 


25 





THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



179 



Table XIV. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 
1018. 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number 
of employ- 
ees 



Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 



Average 

rate of 

wages per 

hour 



Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 





Fitting 


or Stitching Department 






Tip stitchers, female: 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


9 

5 

45 

12 

7 

4 

13 

9 

9 

4 

8 


31 

24 

178 

36 

25 

9 

38 
32 
30 
14 
20 


51.8 
54-o 
51-6 
52.9 
50.8 
53-7 
50.1 
50.0 
53-o 
54-3 
53-6 


$0,283 
•339 
.312 
.214 
•321 
.228 
■341 
•259 
.228 
.229 
• 223 


$14.47 
18.28 
15.98 
11. 21 
16.32 
12.21 
17.10 
12.96 
12.12 
12.38 
U-95 


Total 


125 


437 


51.8 


So. 288 


$14.86 






Backstay stitchers, 
female: 


9 

4 

49 

3 

12 

7 

10 

9 

9 

4 

8 


46 
15 
213 
7 
60 
48 
48 
31 
51 
19 
22 


52.6 
54-0 

51.6 

52.8 
53-1 
50.3 
49.9 

50.0 
52-7 
54-5 
54-0 










294 
286 
247 
211 
294 
291 
239 
207 
231 
244 


15.85 
14.74 
I3-C5 


Massachusetts. . . . 
Minnesota 


New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio 


14.76 
14-39 


Pennsylvania .... 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


10.96 
12.56 
13-15 


Total 


124 


560 


51 Q 


$0,261 


$13-40 


Lining makers: 


9 
4 

51 
3 

II 
9 
4 

14 
9 
9 
3 
6 


77 
37 

4°3 
25 

11S 
96 
14 

129 

108 
88 
18 
25 


51-4 
54-0 
511 
53-6 
52.2 
50.6 
54-1 
50.4 
50.0 
53-3 
54-o 
54-4 


• 236 
.278 
.263 
•215 
.189 
.249 
.200 
.277 
.219 
.201 
.185 
.184 






15-03 
13-44 
11.49 
9-83 
12.56 
10.80 
13-94 
10.94 
io.73 


Massachusetts. . . . 
Minnesota 


New Hampshire. . . 

New York 

Ohio 


Pennsylvania 


Other States 


10.02 


Total 


132 


1,138 


Si-5 


$0,241 


$12.35 















* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 
igo7 to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



i8o 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Fitting or Stitching Department — Continued 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 


Number 
of estab- 
lishments 


Number 
of employ- 
ees 


Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 


Average 

rate of 

wages per 

hour 


Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 


Closers-on, female: 


9 

3° 
13 
10 
8 
4 
16 


27 
81 
59 
63 

52 

19 

50 


52.9 
51-7 
52.4 
. 5°-2 
52.8 
53-9 
52.4 


.249 
.264 
.206 
•259 
•199 
.222 
.238 


13-07 
1367 
10.75 
12.94 
10.57 
1193 
12.49 


Massachusetts .... 


New York 

Pennsylvania 


Total 


90 


35i 


52.0 


■237 


12.28 


Top stitchers or un- 
der-trimmers, fe- 
male: 


8 
S 

52 
3 

13 
9 
4 

14 
9 
9 
3 
4 
2 


65 
70 

487 
23 

175 

151 
15 

164 
94 
60 
20 
3° 
10 


53-2 
54-0 
51-4 
53-1 
52.6 

S°-4 
54-2 
49-7 
5°o 
53 -o 
54-o 
54-5 
54-o 


■ 279 
.317 
•305 
.260 
.222 
•314 
.230 
.322 
.263 
.224 
.273 
.217 
.190 








Massachusetts .... 


15-66 
13.83 
10.78 


New Hampshire. . . 

New York 

Ohio 


15-79 
12.49 
15-97 
13.14 
H-93 
14.74 
11.85 
10.26 


Other States 


Total 


135 


1,364 


516 


$0,285 


$14.57 


Button fasteners, fe- 
male: 
Massachusetts.. . 
Missouri 

Ohio 


18 
9 
6 
6 
8 

17 


26 
13 
8 
6 
21 
28 


52.1 
53-1 
49.8 
50.0 
53-8 
53-7 


.237 
.209 
.280 
.262 
.203 
.231 


12.37 
11.04 
13-79 


Pennsylvania 

Other States 


10.95 
12.36 


Total 


64 


102 


52.7 


$0,230 


$12.06 


Buttonhole makers, 
female: 


8 
27 
8 
7 
3 

10 
5 
7 
3 
4 


9 

42 

17 
8 
5 

18 
6 

22 
4 
9 


53-1 
5i-7 
53-3 
5 to 
55-0 
5°o 
5°.o 
53-6 
53.8 
53-3 


.220 
.279 
•234 
•325 
.202 
.261 
.230 
•254 
.228 
•303 


11.65 


Massachusetts.. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

Ohio 


14-43 
12.39 
16.45 
11. 11 
13-01 
11.48 


Other States 


I3-67 
12.27 
16.19 


Total 


82 


140 


52.2 


$0,262 


$13-62 















THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 181 

Fitting or Stitching Department — Continued 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 


Number 
of estab- 
lishments 


Number 
of employ- 
ees 


Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 


Average 

rate of 

wages per 

hour 


Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 


Eyeleters, female: 
Massachusetts.. . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States..... . 


37 
3 

13 
S 

IO 

7 
S 
4 
8 


83 
7 
34 
12 
31 
16 
20 
10 
10 


51-9 
53-6 
52-3 
50.3 

50.2 
50.0 
5°-7 
540 
54-2 


.283 
.285 
.232 
.291 
•317 
.272 
.198 
.223 
.266 


14.68 
I5-3I 
12.06 
14.67 
14.42 
13.58 
10.13 
12.02 
14.42 


Total 


92 


223 


51-7 


$0,268 


$13.64 


Vampers, male: 


S 
3 
39 
7 
7 
3 
9 
4 
6 


37 
14 
380 
20 
53 
7 
36 
13 
13 


S0.3 
55-3 
512 
54-1 
50.1 
53-3 
50.9 
57-3 
540 






Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 




482 
449 
38l 
415 
331 
530 
394 
323 


26.73 
22.95 
20.23 
20.84 
17.62 
27.04 
22.65 
17.46 


Total 


83 


573 


51-5 


$0,442 


$22.73 


Vampers, female: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


9 
S 

Si 
3 

12 
9 
3 

13 
9 
9 
3 
4 
2 


93 

87 

4°9 

41 

187 

140 

IS 

171 

137 

106 

28 

45 

18 


53-5 
54-0 
Si-5 
53-4 
52.4 
50.3 
55° 
50.0 
500 
52.6 
54-0 
53-7 
54-0 


.284 
.381 
•339 
.258 
.298 
.362 
.240 
■344 
•253 
•243 
.220 
.302 
.174 


15-14 
20.57 
17-43 
13-77 
15-55 
18.18 
1318 
17.12 
12.64 
12.83 
11.88 
16 15 
9-38 


Total 


132 


1-477 


51-7 


$0,312 


$16.11 















CHAPTER X 

THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 

Its Nature. As the upper leather department is 
sometimes called upper stock fitting, so the sole 
leather department is often called bottom stock 
fitting. It deals with the preparation of the bottom 
parts of the shoe. These are: 

i. Soles. 

2. Insoles. 

3. Counters. 

4. Toe Boxes. 

5. Heels. 

The Preparation of Sole Leather Parts. These 
parts may all be prepared in # specialized factories 
and sold to shoe factories, or large shoe concerns 
may themselves have special departments for the 
preparation of these parts from the sides of sole 
leather. Briefly, in either case the sole leather is 
dampened by dipping it in water to make it cut 
more easily, and the desired parts are cut out in the 
rough by means of dies in "dieing-out machines." 
The shoe factory, when buying such parts, usually 
buys them in this condition. The cut parts are then 



THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 183 

made to conform nearly to the desired shape for 
shoemaking by rounding them in the " rounding 
machine." This machine uses a pattern of the 
required shape and by means of a knife cuts around 
the sole in conformity with the pattern. The out- 
sole is passed through a heavy rolling machine to 
press the fibers very closely together, so as to in- 
crease the wear of the shoe as did the hammering 
of the old time shoemaker. The sole is then passed 
through a splitting machine which reduces it to an 
even thickness. The insole, or inner sole, is made 
in the same way as the outer sole but of lighter 
leather. These and other parts of the shoe bottom 
will be spoken of again in the following pages. 

The Division of Bottom Stock Fitting. There are 
three important divisions in the bottom stock fitting 
or sole leather department. That dealing with the 
divisions of the insole depends upon two special 
methods of shoemaking as described in Chapter VIII. 
The three divisions are the following: 

1. McKay Insole Division. 

2. Welt Insole Division. 

3. Outer Sole Division. 

The McKay Insole Department. In the making 
of McKay insoles material is usually bought in 
roughly blocked form. Since light leather is used 
regularly for the inner sole in this method of shoe- 



1 84 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

making the blocks are first dipped in a solution of 
glue, so that when dried they will become somewhat 
hardened and strengthened. They are then died out 
or dinked upon a machine in sizes and widths, with a 
full set for each style of shoe to be made. They 
are cased up by girls, according to the accompanying 
tags. 

Positions in the McKay Insole Department. The 
few positions here are, the Foreman, girls for dipping 
the insoles in glue, dinkers or operators of dieing out 
machines, girls for casing up soles, and a checker girl. 

There may be other operations in this division, 
such as " stitch slashing " and reinforcing the heels 
of insoles. 

The Welt Insole Department. Inner soles made 
by the welt method are of two kinds, leather and 
reinforced. The all-leajher sole must be of good 
quality, and at least of a standard thickness. The 
reinforced sole may be of poorer quality and thinner, 
yet of a fixed standard. In such soles the leather 
is reinforced or strengthened by a covering of canvas 
cemented firmly upon it. For welt insoles the 
leather is bought in full side stock, that is, uncut, 
and in the rough block form. The soles are first 
dinked out as in the McKay division, and sizes are 
stamped upon the heels by hand. Then the heel 
seat is cut across in a machine to indicate the posi- 
tion of the front of the heel. Girls usually perform 
this operation because of their quickness of hand. 



THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 185 

One person may cut the heels of 10,000 insoles in a 
day. This is a good illustration of a process in which 
scarcely more than one simple motion is involved. 

Channeling. The purpose of the welt method is 
to give a smooth, even inner sole in the finished shoe. 
To effect this the sole must be either pasted in or 
attached on its under surface. The latter is ac- 
complished by passing the insole through the Good- 
year channeling machine which makes incisions, or 
a double " lip," with two knives acting at the same 
time. A slit about one-half inch deep is cut from 
within along the edge of the insole. Then the 
channel thus made is opened up on a lip-turning 
machine, forming a ridge around the outer edge. 
The welt is later sewed to this lip or shoulder. 

Slashing. The welt inner sole is sometimes 
slashed or cut across the ball of the foot on the under 
side, to make it flexible. 

Wetting. Leather inner soles are passed through 
heavy rollers, in which they are wet and compressed 
at the same time. They are now sorted and packed 
to go to the lasting room. 

Randing. The rand is a strip of leather made 
thin at one edge. It is attached to the heel part of 
the sole, or later to the heel itself, so as to fill what 
would otherwise be an open space between the sole 
and the heel. 

Reinforced Insoles. The reinforced insole is 



1 86 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

characterized by lightness and strength. Soles which 
are to be thus treated are first died or stamped out 
as in other cases. They are channeled with a 
single lip which is turned up to indicate the place of 
the canvas reinforcement. They may be slashed 
and dampened as in the case of the leather sole. 
They are then dried under a large fan or in a blower, 
having been cemented by a brush on the surface 
inside the lip. 

The Canvas Reinforcement. A large roll of canvas 
of suitable width is run through a cement box and 
over a great reel, one side of the canvas only being 
wet with cement. The canvas dries upon the reel, 
is taken off in a roll, and cut in the proper reinforce- 
ment lengths, which are later fitted by hand upon 
the leather insole of the lip and " formed " or rubbed 
thoroughly into the space by a machine. The sur- 
plus canvas is then trimmed off at the edge of the 
lip. The soles are then cleaned, inspected, sorted, 
and packed up for the lasting room. 

Positions in the Welt Insole Department. The 
positions in this department, including those already 
indicated and several others which may be found 
in most factories, are as follows: 

i. The Superintendent. 

2. Foremen. 

z. Assistant Foremen. 



THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 187 

4. Quantity Man, who makes a study of the 

volume of work done in the department. 

5. Quality Man ; who inspects work for quality. 

6. Dinkers and Stampers. 

7. Heel Markers and Cutters. 

8. Channelers. 

9. Slashers. 

10. Lip Cutters. 

11. Lip Turners. 

12. Toe Cutters. 

13. Wetters and Cementers. 

14. Heel Counters. 

15. Randers. 

16. Canvas Cutters. 

17. Canvas Attachers. 

18. Canvas Formers. 

19. Canvas Trimmers. 

20. Sorters and Packers. 

21. Floor Boy. 

The Outer Sole Department. The treatment of 
outer soles is largely like that given to inner soles. 
The main processes are much the same with a few 
additional processes and features. Outer soles are 
first cut into the rough block form and are then 
dinked out, or " rounded " by being cut by pattern 
upon a machine. Sizes are stamped upon the heel. 
They are shanked out and the heel seat is smoothed 



1 88 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

by a machine. They are then wet and moulded 
upon a high pressure machine to the shape of the 
shoe bottom, being at the same time hardened by 
the pressure. A feather edge is given to the fore' 
part and heel seat of the soles which are to be treated 
by the McKay process. Channels are cut and 
turned in those to be treated by the welt process. 

Positions in the Outer Sole Department. The posi- 
tions, in this department, from the superintendent 
down, are practically the same as those of the insole 
department, on page 186, with the exception of 
cementers and canvas workers. 

The Counter Department. As has been said 
already, small parts of the shoe, such as the counter, 
toe box, and heel, presented briefly at this place, are 
largely manufactured in special factories and pur- 
chased in quantity by the shoe companies. Large 
factories, however, or shoe manufacturing companies 
operating a number of factories, usually have de- 
partments for making their own counters, toe boxes, 
heels, and other minor parts. Opportunities for 
employment in the specialized factories depend 
mainly upon the magnitude of manufacture, the large 
number of parts turned out daily requiring little 
skill but many hands in the making. 

The counter is a stiffening in the back part of the 
shoe between the leather and the lining, and lasted 
with the rest of the top to the bottom of the shoe. 



THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 189 

Its purpose is to prevent running over at the heel. 
It is made of sole leather, leatherboard, leather 
fiber, or similar substance that may be easily worked 
and yet left firm after treatment, and sometimes of 
metal in the case of heavy shoes. 

The counter is died out and its edges skived thin. 
It is treated with shellac or glue and molded into 
shape. 

The Toe Box Department. The toe box is a re- 
inforcement placed in the toe of the shoe to give 
permanency of shape or a distinctive style. It is 
usually made of sole leather, but it may be made of 
leatherboard, pasteboard, canvas, linoleum, celluloid, 
or of other materials which can be easily worked 
and made to retain their shape. The box is died 
out, skived upon the part above the toe, soaked in 
shellac or gum so as to be stiff when dry, and usually 
molded to the desired form, ready for use in the 
lasting room. 

The Heel Department. In Chapter XIV, upon the 
terms used in shoemaking, an explanation is given 
of the heel and its varieties. So it is necessary here 
to speak only of the materials and processes of its 
manufacture. 

Heels are usually made of the poorer parts of sole 
leather, including the remnants from counters and 
toe boxes, leatherboard, " hydite," or other leather 
substitutes, and of wood. 



i go THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The Processes of Making Heels. The leather is 
first " fitted/' which consists of skiving and rolling. 
It is skived by being run through a machine to give 
it an even thickness, and rolled to make it hard 
and firm. It is then weighed and given to the cutter. 
Each operator on the cutting or dinking machine has 
five or six dies and cuts the leather as economically 
as possible into various sizes for heel lifts. These 
are then sorted by hand into four grades, and put 
into bins according to sizes, ready for " heel 
building." The heel builder receives a tag calling 
for so many heels of a certain size and and gets from 
the bins the lifts required by the size. The lifts 
are placed one upon another, by a gradation of sizes, 
up to the height necessary for the heel. The pile 
is pasted or glued and a nail is driven through by a 
machine to hold it firmly together. Many of these 
piles, or heels in the rough form, are put upon 
boards and placed in the fiat press where they remain 
for twenty-four hours under high pressure. They 
are then put into a compressing machine which 
molds them into any desired shape. After this 
rands are tacked upon them, when not first attached 
to the heel seat, so that they will fit closely upon 
the heel seat of the sole of the shoe. Then the 
front part or breast of the heel is cut off smoothly, 
as this can be done better before the heel is attached. 
Heels are then sorted, gauged for height, trimmed 



THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 191 

upon their edges, put into bags, and stored away 
until called for by the making department. A top 
piece, or lift of superior leather is put upon the heel 
later in the making department. 

Positions in Heel Making. The usual positions in 
a heel factory or in the heel department of a modern 
shoe factory are as follows: 

1. The Superintendent. 

2. Assistant Superintendent. 

3. Foreman. 

4. Assistant Foreman. 

5. Skivers. 

6. Rollers. 

7. Cutters. 

8. Weighers. 

9. Heel Lift Sorters. 

10. Heel Lift Gaugers 

11. Heel Builders. 

12. Flat Press Men. 

13. Rand Makers. 

14. Rand Tackers. 

15. Compressors. 

16. Heel Sorters. 

17. Heel Repairers. 

18. Lumpers. 

Employees in the Sole Leather Department. The 
heavier processes in this department and the larger 



192 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

machines require men as operators, but the many 
lighter processes and the handling of small parts 
make possible the employment of large numbers 
of boys and girls and women. In the average 
factory this department usually has about an even 
division of male and female employees, standing 
next to the stitching room in its proportion of the 
latter. 






THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 193 

Table XV. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, in the 
United States, by Years, 1907 to 1918. 



Occupation, sex, and 
number of establish- 
ments 



x> o 
So. 
3 S 



~ & 

■H v 

D O. 



v ho 



S to 

Jj'g 



Employees whose full-time 
hours per week were — 



CO ,. 



Sole Leather Department 



Cutters, outsole, 
male: 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


5o 
47 
49 
54 


54-8 
54-5 
54-5 
54-4 


$0,314 
.308 
•307 
•309 


$17.21 
16.79 

16.81 






38 
35 
37 
42 


5 
10 
10 
10 


7 
2 
2 
2 




















31 establishments. . . . 


1910 


143 


S6.6 

5* 1 


• 274 


15-44 
15-62 

I5.70 
16.09 






48 


29 


46 
39 

39 

48 


20 
t6 




1911 
1912 


146 
161 


56.6 
56.4 


.278 
.286 






43 
56 


43 
34 








2 


21 


42 establishments. . . . 


1912 
1913 


177 
196 


562 

55-4 


.281 
.303 


15-75 
16.69 




2 
16 


66 
83 


39 
46 


49 
51 


21 


38 establishments. . . . 


1913 
1914 


186 

175- 


5S-2 
54-8 


•304 
.313 


16.75 
17.12 


2 


16 
9 


83 
88 


42 

ss 


45 
10 


"8 


38 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


205 
219 


55-o 
5S-0 


•304 
.310 


16.71 
17.02 


2 
2 


3 

4 


87 
9S 


89 
89 


13 
18 


11 

11 


63 establishments. . . . 


1916 
1918 


324 

374 


54-5 
52.3 


.30J 
•4°5 


16.57 
21.07 


35 

148 


9 
41 


97 
107 


158 
67 


18 
11 


7 


76 establishments. . . . 


1918 


416 


52. 1 


•405 


21.02 


181 


42 


no 


72 


II 




Channelers, insole 
and outsole, male: 
10 establishments. . . . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


23 
23 

23 
23 


55-1 
55-i 
54-7 
54-7 


.283 
.296 
■306 
.300 


15.50 
16.31 
16.74 
16.41 


4 
4 
4 
4 




8 
8 
10 
10 


2 
2 
2 
2 


9 
9 

7 
7 




44 establishments. . . . 


1910 
1911 


138 
140 


56.3 
56.2 


.296 
.306 


16.61 

17.12 


4 
4 


7 
7 


39 
37 


22 
31 


48 
48 


18 
13 


57 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


157 
149 


56.3 
55-5 


.289 
.296 


l6. 21 
l6.35 




7 
12 


46 
61 


38 
30 


45 
39 


21 

7 


7S establishments. . . . 


1912 
1913 


200 
196 


55-9 
55-4 


.298 
■3S3 


16.62 
18.42 




12 
17 


63 
71 


52 
59 


57 
44 


16 

5 



* From Table A. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Bool and Shoe Industry: 
IQ07 to 1 918. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



194 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 







TABLE XV - 


-Concluded 
















*o 8 

£> O 

§ E 


X % 

3 u 

<u ft 
M tn 

il 


o3 

u o 
ca ,_, 
S> ft 

M .r. 


a a 

'■2 S 
Jj'8 
.2 s 

g.3 


Employees whose full-time 
hours per week were — 


Occupation, sex, and 
number of establish- 
ments 


T3 

d h 

CS vo 

oo u 

u d 

> 3 

O 


d t, 

1/5 C 

3 


-3" 


T3 
d r~ 
f £} 
■* n 

oj d 
> 3 
O 


o 

d ►, 

3 






Sole Leather Department 



69 establishments 


1913 
1914 


190 
194 


55-4 
SS-o 


•335 
•337 


18.48 
18.51 


3 


17 
26 


70 
48 


56 
84 


40 
29 


7 
4 


70 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


202 

197 


55-1 
55-2 


.328 
■336 


18.02 
18.51 


6 
6 


26 

23 


49 
48 


79 
76 


34 
35 


8 
9 


99 establishments. . . . 


1916 
1918 


23S 
225 


54-6 
52.6 


•332 
•431 


18.24 
22.54 


13 
95 


24 
30 


55 
37 


108 

47 


25 
15 


10 

1 


r22 establishments. . . 


1918 


268 


52.5 


•43o 


22.42 


122 


32 


42 


52 


19 


1 



THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 195 



Table XVI.* Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, by States 
1918. 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of 

establish- 
ments 



Number 

of 

employees 



Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 



Average 

* rate of 

wages'per 

hour 



Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 



Sole Leather Department 



Cutters, outsole, 
male: 
Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


31 
3 

10 
S 
7 

17 


149 
7i 
67 
24 
16 
89 


51 
53 
48 
55 
55 
52 


8 
5 

8 
5 

1 
8 


$0 


405 
420 
426 
394 
344 
39° 


$20.90 
22.48 
20.71 
21.91 
18.91 
20.43 


Total 


76 


416 


52.1 


$0,405 


$21.02 


Channelers, insole and 
outsole, male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

New York 

Ohio 


9 

4 
44 
II 

9 

12 

8 
9 
16 


16 

12 

113 

23 
22 
27 
16 
17 
22 


5i 

54 
51 
54 
51 
51 
55 
55 
54 


9 

6 

4 

2 

5 
1 
3 
3 

7 




376 
453 
479 
371 
462 
419 
344 
348 
371 


19.38 
24.71 
24-52 
19.92 
23-53 
21-35 
19.00 
19.26 
20.32 


Pennsylvania 

Other States 


Total 


122 


268 






$22.42 













* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Bool and Shoe Industry: 
IQ07 to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 

Its Nature. This department is called also the 
bottoming department and the " gang " room, the 
last name arising from the earlier custom of work 
in this department under the gang system. Here 
the uppers of shoes, prepared in the cutting room 
and stitching room, and the soles, fitted in the sole 
leather room, are brought together, lasted and made 
into shoes ready for finishing. This department falls 
into natural divisions as follows: 

i. The Lasting Department. 

2. The Welt Bottoming Department. 

3. The McKay Bottoming Department. 

4. The Heeling Department. 

5. The Turn Shoe Department. 

6. The Standard Screw, Nailed, or Pegged De- 

partment. 

These divisions are not clearly drawn and through 
them all runs the large general method of bottoming, 
modified only by the variations necessary for attach- 
ing uppers to the bottoms of certain styles and kinds 
of shoes, as has been already explained at length 
in Chapter VIII upon " Methods in Shoe Manu- 

196 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



197 



facture." There are many processes in the making 
room, about fifty, for instance, following through 
any one method, and many more made necessary 
by the multiplication of methods. 

This chapter is illustrated much more fully than 
others in this volume because of the many important 
and heavy processes found in the bottoming room, 



Si 








mm* 


nir 




JBv.; 1 






V 


JK l 




i^iflb«3£lMf IIS 3^^ - 




"^■^ 




BED LASTING 


^•St 5 " <^8S 




MACHINE NS 5 





Bed Lasting Machine No. 5 

and because of the wonderful machines invented for 
their performance. Here the inventor of shoe ma- 
chinery is at his best. 

The Lasting Department. There are two methods 
of lasting, by hand and by machinery. The first, 
like most other processes in shoemaking, is giving 
way rapidly to the machine method. 



1 98 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Adjusting the upper of the shoe to the last is the 
beginning of the work done in the bottoming depart- 
ment. The toe box is put in its proper place between 
the lining and the upper ; and the counter in its place 
at the heel, between the lining and the upper. Then 
the upper is drawn over the last upon which has 
already been tacked the insole, which conforms 
exactly to the shape of the last, and is tacked to 
hold it in place. 

The Pulling Over Machine. As the parts of the 
shoe have been cut to conform to the shape of the 
last they must be accurately attached upon it. The 
pulling over machine has pincers which act exactly 
like the human fingers. These pincers grasp the 
leather at various points around the toe and draw 
it closely against the wood of the last upon the inner 
sole. By an adjustment of levers all parts of the 
upper are drawn in evenly and tacked securely in 
place. 

Toe and Heel Wiping. The toe and heel are the 
most difficult parts to last properly. These are 
drawn in by a series of wipers upon the lasting 
machine, so evenly that no wrinkles are left, and 
held in place by a strip of tape, fine wire, or by tacks. 
Tacks except at the heel, where they are clinched 
on the inside, are driven only part way in so that 
they may later be withdrawn to leave the inside of 
the shoe perfectly smooth, the distinctive feature 
of the welt method. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



199 



The Upper Trimming Machine. The surplus upper 
leather drawn over the bottom at the toe and heel 
and sometimes at the sides of the shoe ; is removed 
upon the upper trimming machine in which a knife 
cuts the extra parts away very smoothly and evenly, 




REX PULLING OVER 
MACHINE 



Rex Pulling Over Machine 



while at the same time a small hammer pounds the 
leather smooth along the sides and toe of the shoe. 
The shoe then passes to another machine by which 
the leather and counter around the heel are beaten 
into conformity with the last, making the entire 
bottom ready for the welt bottoming processes. 



2 00 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Positions in the Lasting Department. The chief 
positions in this department are, the Superintendent, 




Operating the Goodyear Universal Inseam Trimming Machine 

foreman, operators of the pulling over machine, the 
lasting machine, and the trimming and pounding 
machines. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 201 

The Welt Bottoming Department. The welt 
method of bottoming is coming increasingly into use 
because of producing a smooth inside bottom of the 
shoe, and because of the ease with which a welt shoe 
can be repaired after being worn. After the lasting 
operations the shoe is ready to receive the outsole. 

Welting. First the welt which is distinctive of 
this method of shoemaking is attached. The welt 
is a narrow strip of leather so prepared that it may 
be sewed first to the lip of the inner sole and to the 
upper leather and later to the outer sole, no stitching 
passing entirely through the bottom of the shoe as 
in the McKay method. The welt extends in front 
of the heel entirely around the shoe. This process 
was a very difficult one in the days of hand shoe- 
making, but as performed upon a machine it becomes 
simple and rapid. It is claimed, indeed, that this 
particular machine process has been the leading 
factor in the great development of shoe manufactur- 
ing in recent times. After this process the surplus 
parts of the lip, upper, and welt are trimmed off by 
the inseam trimming machine. 

Welt Beating. The next process is welt beating 
upon a machine in which a small hammer with rapid 
strokes beats the welt down evenly at the side of the 
shoe. The insole and the welt are now coated over 
with rubber cement. At the same time the outsole 
receives a coating of cement. 



202 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Sole Laying. When this has dried slightly the 
process of sole laying takes place. The sole is put 




Operating the Goodyear Improved Twin Sole Laying Machine 

in place and pressed firmly upon the shoe and welt 
in the sole laying machine, remaining in the machine 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



203 



a sufficient length of time for the cement to set firmly. 
Rough Rounding. Next comes the trimming of 
the sole and welt so that they will extend a uniform 
distance from the upper leather. This process is 
called rough rounding and is one of the most im- 




rait 





GOODYEAR WELT 
AND TURN SHOE 
MACHINE, MODEL K 



Goodyear Welt and Turn Shoe Machine, Model K 



portant, exacting, and arduous processes found in 
the entire factory. A machine gauges the distance 
at which the cutting shall be done from the last, 
cutting usually wider on the outside of the shoe 
than on the inside and reducing the width of the 
shank. In any lot of shoes, large or small, passing 



204 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



through the hands of the rough rounder there must 
be the same variation of margin according to size 
and design. 

The rough rounding machine cuts also a little 
slit or channel along the edge in the bottom of the 
sole. This channel was formerly cut by hand. Its 




GOODYEAR UNIVERSAL 
ROUNDING & CHANNEL- 
ING MACHINE, MODEL E 



Goodyear Universal Rounding and Channeling Machine, 
Model E 

purpose is to allow a covering for the stitching 
that follows. 

Heel Seat Nailing. The process of rough rounding 
deals simply with that part of the shoe in front 
of the heel to which the welt has been sewed. The 
heel portion of the outsole is next fastened by nailing 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



205 



securely through to the inner sole. The surplus 
leather around the heel is now trimmed off on the 



H 

-IfT 

t If 

■ n 


"1 


< 

1 


-• 




« 


■•«-- 



Operating the Goodyear Heel Seat Rounding Machine 

heel seat rounding machine, which cuts a channel 
also. This channel is opened evenly to provide 
for stitching. 



206 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Sole Sewing. The outsole is now stitched to the 
welt entirely around the shoe upon the outsole lock- 
stitch machine, a process very similar to welt sewing. 
This stitching, however, is finer and very durable. 
It shows on the upper side of the welt around the 
finished shoe. 

Channel Laying. The lip of the channel is now 
cemented upon a machine, partly dried, and is rolled 
smoothly and evenly back into place upon the 
channel laying machine, completely covering the 
stitches which would otherwise show on the bottom 
of the shoe. 

Leveling. The shoe is passed beneath a vibrating 
roller under heavy pressure in the automatic sole 
leveling machine. The roller passes completely up 
and down each side of the shoe, canting first to the 
right and then to the left and removing every un- 
evenness on the bottom. 

Welt Finishing. The edge of the fore part of the 
shoe was left in a slightly rough condition after the 
process of rough rounding. This roughness is now 
smoothed away upon the trimming machine, which 
has a set of rapidly revolving cutters. The edge 
and welt of the shoe receive a coat of blacking, and 
the stitches showing on the upper side of the welt 
are separated on a machine so as to present an even 
appearance. The indentations thus made are 
burnished upon a machine. The edge of the shoe 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



207 



is burnished upon the edge setting machine by means 
of two rapidly vibrating hot irons. The surface of 
the top lift of the heel is leveled upon the top lift 
sanding machine, and the breast is scoured on a 
rapidly revolving disk. 







- - - 




I 


*9& 




- 




E*T 


JS%^< 




Jo 








GOODYEAR OUTSOLE 








RAPID LOCKSTITCH 






MACHINE 



Goodyear Outsole Rapid Lockstitch Machine 

Other Finishing Processes. From this point on 
there are various processes of finishing the heel and 
the bottom of the shoe, which may be performed in 
the bottoming department or in a separate finishing 
department. Some of these, such as tip repairing, 
are quite separate from the work of the bottoming 
department. The more important of the finishing 
processes may be presented here. 



208 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



The heel and the edges of the shoe are blacked or 
covered with the dressing suitable to the leather 
used on shoes other than black, and finished on 
burnishing machines. The bottom of the shoe is 
buffed upon revolving rollers covered with sand- 




6O00YEAR AUTOMATIC 
SOLE LEVEUNS MACHINE 



Goodyear Automatic Sole. Leveling Machine 

paper, to remove the marks of handling in various 
processes. It is then buffed to a finer degree on the 
Naumkeag buffing machine upon a pad of rubber 
covered with fine emery paper, revolving still more 
rapidly than the first buffing machine. The bottom 
of the shoe is now " hard finished " by receiving coats 
of stain or other material, and by polishing. In 
some cases the bottoms are blacked in whole or in 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



209 



part, and some receive a dull finish on the forepart, 
while the whole is thoroughly polished upon re- 
volving brushes. 




Operating the Hadaway Stitch Separating Machine 



210 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Positions in the Welt Bottoming Department. The 
more usual positions in the welt bottoming depart- 
ment are as follows: 



I. 


The Superintendent. 


19. 


Channel Layers 


2. 


Foreman. 


20. 


Wheelers. 


3- 


Assistant Foreman. 


21. 


Randers. 


4- 


Tack Pullers. 


22. 


Levelers. 


5- 


Welters. 


23- 


Heelers. 


6. 


Inseam Trimmers. 


24. 


Sluggers. 


7- 


Welt Scarfers. 


25- 


Heel Shavers. 


8. 


Welt Beaters. 


26. 


Heel Breasters. 


9- 


Shank Nailers. 


27. 


Edge Trimmers. 


10. 


Bottom Fillers. 


28. 


Heel Scourers. 


ii. 


Welt Cementers. 


29. 


Heel Jointers. 


12. 


Sole Cementers. 


30. 


Edge Setters. 


13- 


Sole Layers. 


3i. 


Burnishers. 


14. 


Heel Seat Nailers. 


32. 


Blackers. 


i5- 


Rough Rounders. 


33- 


Buffers. 


16. 


Channel Openers. 


34- 


Hard Finishers. 


17. 


Goodyear Stitchers. 


35- 


Polishers. 


18. 


Channel Cementers. 


36. 


Floor Persons. 



The McKay Bottoming Department. The McKay 
bottoming department is that division in which the 
upper is attached to the sole by a machine which 
sews directly through the outsole, upper leather, and 
insole. The upper parts come to the McKay room 
from the lasting room; the outer soles come from the 
sole leather department, having been kept in humidi- 
fiers so as to be moist and ready for use. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



211 



Processes Connected with the McKay Method. 
First the toes of the uppers, already upon the lasts, 




Operating the Twin Edge Setting Machine 

are buffed upon an emery wheel which grinds off the 
surplus leather and nails, so that the outer sole will 



212 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



lie even upon the shoe. The outer sole is then 
" layed " in place and nailed or tacked in the toe, 




Operating the Top Piece Sanding Machine 



shank, and heel upon a machine. The lasts are now 
pulled or withdrawn from the shoe by hand, and 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



213 



the McKay stitching process is performed upon the 
McKay machine. This is a very particular and 




Operating the Naumkeag Buffing Machine 

exacting process and is found in most shoe factories 
at the present time. For comparison between this 



214 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



and other methods the reader is referred again to 
Chapter VII. 

The usual processes following the McKay stitch- 
ing are, heel seat nailing on a machine, channel 




Operating the Goodyear Stitching Machine 

lifting or opening and cementing, wetting the bot- 
tom of the shoe upon a brush revolving in water, 
channel laying upon a steel roller which by a cor- 
rugated lip draws the channel in smooth, beating 
out the bottom in a machine and by hand to make 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



215 



it smooth and give it proper lines, drying, and heel 
attaching. 

Before relasting McKays and sending them on 




Nailing Heel Seat 



216 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

to finishing, the bottom lining must be inserted, a 
work generally done by girls. Linings of thin 
leather or leather substitute, which were dinked out 
in the upper cutting department, are selected by 
sizes. The inside of the bottom of the shoe is 
cemented by a brush, and the linings are inserted 
by hand and smoothed down by means of a stick. 
Wooden lasts or " followers " are now inserted upon 
a machine. 

Positions in the McKay Bottoming Department. 
The positions in this department are generally as 
follows: 

i. The Superintendent. 9. Cementers. 



2. 


b oreman. 


10. 


Bottom Wetters. 


3- 


Buffers. 


11. 


Channel Layers. 


4- 


Sole Layers. 


12. 


Inside Bottom 


5- 


Last Pullers. 




Cementers. 


6. 


McKay Stitchers. 


13- 


Lining Inserters 


7- 


Heel Seat Nailers. 


14. 


Lasters. 


8. 


Channel Lifters. 


15. 


Floor People. 



The Heeling Department. The heel is now at- 
tached to the shoe upon the heeling machine. The 
shoe is placed upon a jack in the machine and an 
arm bearing the nails is swung automatically over 
the heel, driving the nails through the heel, outsole, 
upper leather, and insole, where they are clinched 
upon the inside. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 217 




. Operating the Channel Cementing Machine 



2i8 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Blind Nailing. The heads are left extending far 
enough outside the heel to receive the top lift. 
This is made from the best of leather, and is sub- 
jected to great pressure to harden it. Previously 
prepared, and with a coating of glue, it is now placed 





Wjjjjfa 


,; 




' /: 


/j£/*je&L 


- - - ' ; ; 


Ssi 1 '- ■ 


Kj^JL • 


, <-,_. 








_^M9M 




y*&vmmk 


• 






.^rn^-X 


§Bo!3 






. :. " 


IjIIBjl 








p %• ' *- 












* -ifr" ' Mg^ 






s3lii$ 






f „ :^ «f/j| 


*.Iv j|C 




BUI 


if 














BSi-r.^^t 


;*»! IsBSS* 








SBt ^ .a 


fe 1 




Eds i 

Hi 


■i 




















M 




: :,.-• 




2p^^ 





The Heeling Room of the Making Department 

in position, with the shoe still in the machine, and 
driven down over the protruding nails. This is the 
process of " blind nailing." 

Slugging. Short nails, or " slugs," of brass or 
other metal are now driven into the top lift by the 
slugging machine, to increase the wearing qualities 
of the heel. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



219 



Heel Trimming. The top lift is made in the exact 
size of the finished heel, and is a guide for the 
operator of the trimming machine, which by means 
of a rapidly revolving knife cuts away all the sur- 
plus leather on the outside. The breast or front 





McKAY AUTOMATIC 
HEEL LOADING AND 
ATTACHING MACHINE 



McKay Automatic Heel Loading and Attaching Machine 

is trimmed evenly across on the " heel-breasting " 
machine. The outside of the heel is scoured or 
smoothed by rolls covered with sandpaper, on the 
heel scouring machine. 

Heel trimming, like the rough rounding of the 
sole, is an exacting process, calling for strength and 



220 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 




Operating the Universal Slugging Machine 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 221 

skill. It sometimes produces in the operator what 
is called " broken wrist/' or a weak wrist, as the 
shoe, held firmly in both hands against the knife 
of the machine, must be turned nearly through an 
entire circle, both turning and twisting the wrist 
joints. When the effect upon the operator becomes 
marked he usually changes to some other process. 

Positions in the Heeling Department. The chief 
positions in this small department are, the super- 
intendent, the foreman, and the operators of the 
nailing, slugging, and trimming machines. 

The Turned Shoe Department. The turned shoe 
or slipper is made with an ordinary upper, usually of 
light weight, and with a single sole of flexible 
quality. Soles are prepared or fitted in this depart- 
ment one day in advance of their use. The main 
processes in the preparation of the soles are the 
following: 

The soles are channeled and placed in humidi- 
fiers over night. In the morning the shank is 
trimmed out, the heel scarfed or trimmed off, and the 
sole is molded into shape. 

Lasting the Turned Shoe. In lasting the sole is 
placed upon the last upside down, and the upper 
is drawn over the last, inside out. The counter is 
put in wrongside out. All parts are tacked care- 
fully in place. 

The sewing of the upper to the sole now takes 



222 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



place upon a special turn shoe machine. Tacks are 
withdrawn and the selvage trimmed off, and a small 
steel shank is sewed in the space between the heel 




Operating the Ultima Heel Trimming Machine 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 223 




Operating the Imperial Heel Breasting Machine 



224 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

and the ball of the front. The last is then with- 
drawn and the shoe is turned by hand over the toe 
upon an iron support. The last is then put back in 
the shoe and the lining smoothed out around the heel 
part, which is then leveled and prepared for the heel 
which is to be added, either of leather, leather sub- 
stitute, or of wood. This is glued, clamped on 
firmly and left to dry, and finished later. Usually 
three nails are inserted to hold it permanently. A 
lining or heel piece is inserted for smoothness. 

Positions in the Turned Shoe Department. The 
usual positions in this department are as follows: 



I. 


The Superintendent. 


8. Trimmer. 


2. 


Foreman. 




9. Shank Soler. 


3- 


Inspector. 




10. Second Laster 


4- 


Stock Fitter. 




11. Heel Laster. 


5- 


Laster. 




12. Leveler. 


6. 


Stitcher. 




13. Finisher. 


7- 


Tack Puller. 




14. Heeler. 


iS- 


Cover Sewer, 


who sews 


a cover over whit 



shoes to keep them clean while passing 
through the various processes of the de- 
partment. 
16. Floor Boys. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



225 



The Standard Screw, Pegged, and Nailed Depart- 
ments. Various kinds of heavy working shoes are 
manufactured by the standard screw method, by 




Operating the Expedite Heel Finishing Machine 



226 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

pegging, or by nailing the outsole and insole to- 
gether, thus fastening the bottom of the shoe to the 
upper. By the first method a wire with screw 
thread upon it is driven through the bottom and 
automatically cut off by the machine, piece after 
piece, rapidly around the bottom. This is practi- 
cally a wire sewing in place of McKay stitching. 
The pegged shoe is made in about the same manner, 
a machine inserting wooden pegs instead of the 
sections of wire. The use of pegs was once very 
general, but is now gradually giving way to other 
methods. Nails when used are generally clinched 
on the inside. These three methods give strong 
and firm but inflexible and heavy bottoms to the 
footwear. 

The other processes connected with these special 
kinds of footwear are similar to the general processes 
of welt and McKay manufacture. Finishing does 
not, however, call for so high a degree of perfection. 

Aside from the operators of the special machines 
used for inserting the wire screws, pegs, and nails, 
the positions in general are the same as in the welt 
and McKay departments. 

Work in the Making Department. In the early 
days of American shoe factories the bottoming of 
shoes was quite generally let out to men on contract, 
as has been indicated earlier in this volume. Such 
contract work was performed by gangs of men who 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 227 

went from factory to factory. And we find the 
gang system in use to a degree in factories at the 
present time. It is easier, for instance, for several 
men to work together upon a process or group of 
processes involving operations that must be done 
together in a very brief space of time, working at 
one bench or upon a complicated machine. 

This department involves the heaviest and most 
exacting processes of shoe manufacture, and the 
major processes are regularly performed by men, 
who in the main must be strong and active. Boys, 
girls, and women assist in the minor processes and 
in the handling of materials. 

In the bottoming or making room the machines 
are always ranged along the sides of the room, 
next to the windows, so that there may be good 
light for the many intricate operations necessary. 
Shoes in process of making are arranged upon racks 
along the inner spaces of the room. 



228 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table XVII* Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, in the 
United States, by Years, 1907 to 1918. 















Employees whose full-time 






J. 


EM 
.3 <u 


*= 3 


.§ 60 


hours per week were — 














Occupation, sex, 






=s £ 


■2^3 


s'3 














and number of 


eS 


; >> 








G H 


d 




C t- 


fl 




establishments 


& 


6 "5 
3 s 


4) O. 
60 tn 

h 3 


a 

60 - 
S 60 




00 1- 


T3 *" 

is Si 

rt -S 


■*■ 


Sj 3 


3 O 

^ . 

3 u 
^T3 











< 


<£ 


^* 





R 




> 3 
O 


10 





Lasting Department 



Assemblers, for 
pulling-over machine, 
male: 


1911 
1912 


218 
228 


55 
54 


4 

S 


$0,274 
.265 


SiS-i4 
14-45 






93 
102 


69 

37 


49 

47 


7 




31 




11 


50 establishments. . . . 


1912 
1913 


542 
532 


55 
55 


8 
5 


.238 
.261 


13-21 

14.46 


31 
14 


26 
31 


174 
201 


96 
134 


131 
121 


84 
31 


54 establishments. . . . 


1913 
1914 


597 
646 


55 
55 


4 
2 


.272 
.281 


1501 
15-45 


14 
44 


31 

50 


245 
188 


160 
204 


116 

146 


31 
14 


56 establishments.. . . 


1914 
1916 


659 
586 


55 
55 


5 

1 


.276 
■3°o 


15-24 
16.50 


25 
22 


50 
67 


186 

20I- 


211 

160 


163 
103 


24 
33 


8g establishments. . . . 


1916 
1918 


768 

653 


55 
52 


1 
7 


.288 
■396 


15-85 
20.75 


32 
270 


66 
66 


250 

171 


267 
88 


118 
56 


35 
2 


102 establishments.. . 


1918 


726 


52.6 


■398 


20.85 


310 


87 


174 


90 


63 


2 


Pullers-over, hand, 
male: 


1907 
1 90S 
1909 
1910 

1910 
1911 


345 
330 
366 
3S4 

784 
784 


56.6 
56.6 
56.2 
55-9 

S6.4 
56.2 


■ 256 
.249 

.287 
.276 

.291 
•309 


14.49 
14.09 
16.13 

15-43 

16.38 
17.28 






77 
74 
in 
105 

207 
204 


73 
63 
82 
99 

178 
206 


195 
193 
173 
180 




























35 establishments.. . . 


5 

7 


19 

27 


228 
234 


147 
106 


45 establishments. . . . 


ign 
1912 


897 
899 


56-3 

55-4 


.312 
•319 


17-50 
17.62 


24 


27 
in 


263 
297 


234 
188 


219 
212 


154 
67 


52 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


1,036 
937 


55-3 
55-3 


.316 
■333 


17.41 
18.37 


24 


in 

65 


343 

342 


287 
332 


195 

190 


76 
8 


47 establishments 


1913 
1914 


907 
729 


55-i 
54-9 


■334 
■350 


18.42 
19.24 


2 


65 
60 


354 
212 


323 
368 


157 
82 


8 
5 


30 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


537 
429 


54-8 
54-8 


■357 
■353 


19-52 
19-33 


2 

1 


52 
60 


173 

148 


258 
161 


52 
59 





* From Table A. ■ — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Bool and Shoe Industry: 
iqo? lo iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 

TABLE XVII — Continued 



22Q 















Employees whose full-time 








F="f 


"8«1 


E §> 


hours per week were 
























S^ 
















Occupation, sex, 


rt 


% >, 




2 M 




•d 


1 




T3 


1 




and number of 


V 


■n £ 




V Cu 




cS 10 






§ t ~ 


^0 




establishments 




is s 


2 jS 


M 


00 v* 
MS 


•a *" 

fi is 


■* 


n"0 













•^ 


< s 


5 * 


> 3 






> 3 












< 




< 


O 






O 







Lasting Department 



31 establishments.. . . 


1916 
1918 


461 
326 


54-8 
51.6 


■354 
■485 


19.18 
24.91 


220 


52 

41 


149 
13 


220 
26 


40 
26 




35 establishments.. . . 


1918 


344 


51-7 


.478 


24.62 


221 


41 


15 


39 


28 




Pullers-over, ma- 
chine, male: 
31 establishments... . 


1910 
1911 

1911 
1912 


251 
266 




.320 
.319 

■325 
.312 


18.37 
17-95 

18.18 
I7-3I 






50 
77 

no 
113 


36 
91 

120 

43 


85 
47 

52 
47 


80 


56 

56 

55 








51 

46 
53 


43 establishments. . . . 


328 
305 


1 
6 


15 


34 


60 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


402 

421 


55 
55 


8 

4 


.312 
•351 


17-39 
19.42 


7 
5 


34 
19 


148 
183 


64 
107 


82 
82 


67 
25 


59 establishments. . . . 


1913 

1914 


421 
396 


55 
55 


4 
3 


•352 
.360 


19-45 
19.87 


5 
16 


19 
26 


183 
108 


112 

155 


77 
81 


25 
10 


63 establishments.. . . 


1914 
1916 


410 
421 


55 
55 


6 
3 


•353 
.382 


19.56 
21.08 


8 
n 


30 
40 


108 
119 


I5i 

148 


95 
80 


18 
23 


109 establishments. . . 


1916 
1918 


591 
566 


55 
52 


1 
6 


■375 
■511 


20.60 
26.76 


29 
244 


47 
60 


161 
130 


241 
83 


89 
46 


24 
3 


124 establishments.. . 


1918 


612 


52.6 


■512 


26.77 


273 


60 


134 


86 


56 


3 


Side lasters, hand, 
male: 
20 establishments. . . . 


1913 
1914 


224 
237 


54-2 
54-o 


■303 
.308 


16.40 

16.59 




96 
119 


60 

44 


54 
63 


14 
10 


1 


16 establishments.. . . 


1914 
1916 


217 
179 


53-6 
54-2 


.304 
.315 


16.20 
17.02 


31 

10 


102 

88 


7 
7 


61 

54 


14 

15 


2 

5 


28 establishments 


1916 
1918 


282 
316 


54-i 
52.0 


.312 
•434 


16.87 
22.52 


149 


116 

105 


7i 
23 


81 
30 


10 
9 


4 


43 establishments 


xgiS 


394 


51-9 


.440 


22.74 


202 


114 


26 


41 


II 




Side lasters, ma- 
chine, male: 


1913 
1914 


155 
167 


56.1 
54-3 


$0,323 
•343 


$18.23 
18.54 






63 

58 


34 

53 


52 
18 


7 
6 




31 




17 establishments... . 


1914 
1916 


IS3 

158 


55-0 

54-8 


•341 
.338 


18.69 
18.48 




8 
9 


80 
82 


44 
50 


14 
12 


7 
5 



230 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XVII — Continued 















Employees whose full-time 








fl-s 


■Rfc) 


C w 


hours per week were — 
















Occupation, sex, 


h 


0) •£ 


Si! 


S3 '8 


•a 






-a 


. 




and number of 
establishments 


.2 


(0 P. 
M in 

S3 3 


V ft 
M „ 
^ cS 
S3 M 


S3 

0) o 


03 Z 

00 |_ 
h T3 


3 ■* 
§3 


54 




3 O 


6o 








<^ 


<! * 


«£ 


> 3 

o 


io 




> 3 
O 







Lasting Department 



37 establishments.. . . 



57 establishments.. . . 

Bed-machine oper- 
ators, male: 
IS establishments.. . . 



35 establishments. . . . 
54 establishments. . . . 
65 establishments. . . . 

60 establishments 

64 establishments. . . . 
89 establishments. . . . 

104 establishments . . 

Hand-method last- 
ing-machine opera- 
tors, male: 
6 establishments. . . . 

33 establishments. . . . 
39 establishments. . . . 



1916 
1918 



1918 



rgog 
1910 



1910 
1911 



1911 
1912 



1912 
1913 



1913 
1914 



1914 
1916 



1916 
1918 



1918 



1907 



1909 
1910 



1910 
1911 



1911 
1912 



230 
234 



246 
3°o 
307 
300 

5X3 
568 

793 
1,004 

1,127 
1,220 



i,H3 
1,092 



1,294 
1,179 



325 
352 



477 
478 



55-o 
52.0 



54-7 
54-8 
54-8 
55-o 

56-4 
56.1 

56.1 
55-5 

55-6 
55-2 

55-i 
54-9 

5S-o 
55-1 

5S-o 
52. 1 



•332 
.462 



.468 



•35° 
•334 
•342 
.321 

•311 
.323 

.321 
•304 

.300 
■330 

•331 
.322 

.319 
•351 

•347 
•501 



-311 
•307 
•309 
.322 

.306 
.309 

.316 

■324 



18.22 
23-95 



19-15 
18.30 
18.74 
17.66 

I7-50 
18.09 

17.96 
16.88 

16.67 
18.21 

18.21 
17.68 

17-52 
19-31 

19.04 
26.06 

25.98 



17.76 
17-38 
17-52 
18.06 

17.49 
17-65 

17.96 
18.03 



606 



34 
36 

77 

159 

201 
151 

216 
354 

343 

432 

401 

39° 



120 
41 



106 
101 



134 
85 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 

TABLE XVII — Concluded 



231 















Employees whose full-time 








fi-* 


og 


S IS, 


hours per week were — 












•j d 




Occupation, sex, 
and number of 




S a 
►5 E 


3 M 






T3 

d M 


■oS 




T3 

d _ 


•a ,8 




establishments 


m 01 




bo>, 


"*« 




54 




« !n 


6n 






^ OJ 






II 


> 3 



in d 

3 




mT3 
u d 
> 3 
O 


3 





Lasting Department 



41 establishments. . . . 
35 establishments.. . . 
32 establishments. . . . 
40 establishments. . . . 

5g establishments. . . . 

Turn lasters, hand, 
male: 

28 establishments.. 

26 establishments.. 

29 establishments. . 

35 establishments.. 

Turn sewers, ma- 
chine, male: 
17 establishments.. . . 

23 establishments 

25 establishments. . . 



1912 

1913 


456 
449 


55-7 
55-3 


•325 
•357 


18.05 
19.72 


26 
13 




167 
200 


102 
144 


83 
66 


1913 
1914 


402 
418 


55-2 
55-2 


•355 
•349 


19.58 
19.20 


13 

43 




177 
66 


135 
214 


51 

84 


1014 
1016 


372 
372 


55-9 
55-4 


•342 
•354 


19.04 
19-55 


25 
23 




45 
101 


173 
151 


117 

87 


1916 

1918 


466 
362 


55-3 
52-7 


■ 356 
.485 


19.68 
25-43 


20 
166 


11 
10 


108 
90 


231 

55 


90 
40 


1918 


411 


52.9 


•479 


25.22 


179 


10 


98 


66 


57 


1912 
1913 


45 2 
524 


55-o 
55-0 


• 275 
•3IO 


15-25 
17.00 




106 
140 


56 
122 


74 
89 


127 
149 


1913 
1914 


499 
630 


55-o 
54-4 


.307 
.322 


16.81 
17-45 


"86 


140 
95 


122 
69 


64 
297 


149 

53 


1914 
1916 


681 

733 


54-4 
54-9 


.325 

•354 


17.60 
19.46 


86 
66 


no 

102 


69 
91 


329 

327 


56 
137 


1916 

1918 


939 

752 


54-9 
53-8 


.365 
•453 


20.06 

24-34 


66 
132 


140 
165 


125 
73 


428 
313 


168 
69 


1914 

1916 


48 

52 


53-9 
53-9 


.401 
.408 


21-54 
21-93 


9 
10 


5 
6 


4 
3 


27 
30 


3 
3 


1916 

1918 


76 
61 


54-4 
54-o 


•437 
.503 


23-78 
27.01 


10 
11 


10 

9 


11 
8 


35 
27 


10 
6 


1918 


67 


53-7 


.500 


26.75 


16 


9 


9 


27 


6 



24 

30 



232 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table XVIII.* Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and 
Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, by 
States, 1918. 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number 
of employ- 
ees 



Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 



Average 

rate of 

wages per 

hour 



Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 



Lasting Department 



Assemblers, for pull- 
ing -over ma- 
chine, male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 


7 
S 

29 
3 

12 
9 
3 

11 
9 
6 
3 
3 
2 


27 
42 

247 
12 

112 
45 
16 
86 
57 
38 
IS 
22 
7 


52.2 
54-3 
51-4 
54-8 

53-4 
5°-o 
53-5 
50.1 
57-2 
54-1 
54-o 
54-5 
SS-o 


$0 


360 
448 
463 
38S 
?*8 


$18.62 
24-35 
23.67 
21.07 
17-85 


New Hampshire. . . 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


.380 
.366 

•373 
•429 
.292 
•329 
• 294 
•257 


19.36 
19.50 
18-73 
24,57 
15-78 
17.77 
16.07 
14-15 


Total 


102 


726 


S2.6 


$0,398 


$20.85 


Pullers-over, hand, 
male: 

Massachusetts .... 

Missouri 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


2 

16 

2 

4 
4 
7 


79 

169 

10 

20 
41 
25 


50.0 
50.6 
52.0 
55-4 
56.7 
53-8 


.480 
• 531 
.422 
.462 
•364 
.361 


23.98 
26.72 
21.79 
25.68 
20.61 
19.30 


Total 


35 


344 


5i-7 


$0,478 


$24.62 


Pullers-over, ma- 
chine, male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts .... 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


9 

5 
44 
3 
12 
9 
14 
9 
6 
4 
9 


32 
53 
216 
IS 
67 
62 
64 
39 
22 
19 
23 


53-4 
54-4 
51-4 
54-7 
54-5 
SO.S 
50-3 
56.6 
54-3 
54-2 
54-4 




407 
525 
S69 
477 
430 
5i8 
527 
533 
380 
402 
468 


21.48 
28.58 
29.12 
26.11 
23-15 
26.07 
26.56 
30.23 
20.66 
21.71 
25-43 


Total 


124 


612 


52.6 


$0 


512 


$26.77 



* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 
iqoi to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 

TABLE XVIII. — Continued 



233 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number 
of employ- 
ees 



Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 



Average 

rate of 

wages per 

hour 



Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 



Lasting Department 



Side lasters, hand, 
male: 

Illinois 

Massachusetts. . . . 

New York 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


3 

15 
7 
S 

13 


31 

240 
40 
24 
59 


5JM 

511 
53-2 
55-6 

53-2 




378 
465 
4/o 
.320 
397 


19-34 
23.68 
25-04 
17.82 
21.17 


Total 


43 


394 


51.9 


$0,440 


$22.74 


Side lasters, ma- 
chine, male: 
Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio 

Other States 


IS 
8 
5 
8 
S 

16 


74 
34 
44 
61 
21 
58 


50 
55 
5o 
49 
56 
54 


9 

5 
3 
8 


7 




560 
395 
419 
469 
471 
429 


28.52 
21.65 
21.03 
23-39 
26.75 
23-47 


Total 


57 


292 


52.2 


$0,468 


$24-35 


Bed-machine opera- 
tors, male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


10 
5 

34 
3 
8 
6 
3 

12 
6 
8 
3 
4 

2 


106 
62 

504 
28 
94 

136 
12 

126 
67 
48 
15 
32 
13 


SI 

54 
51 
54 
55 
50 
53 
5o 
56 
54 
54 
54 
55 


4 
1 
8 
7 
2 
8 
8 
3 
8 







455 
558 
539 
459 
411 
492 
472 
482 
534 
377 
5ii 
415 
433 


23.18 
30.40 
27-45 
25.10 
22.67 
24.65 
25-34 
24.56 
30.13 
20.68 
27-59 
22.37 
23.82 


Total 


IO4 


I.303 


52.1 


$0,500 


$25.98 


Hand-method lasting- 
machine opera- 
tors, male: 


3 

26 
7 
7 

16 


37 
163 
76 
43 
92 


54-2 
52.0 
52.9 
56.9 
52.2 




27-33 
26.79 
23-H 
25-75 
23-43 


Massachusetts. . . . 




514 
440 
451 
455 


Ohio 


Other States 


Total 


59 


411 


52 " 




$25.22 













234 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XVIII. — Concluded 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 

of 
establish- 
ments 



Number 

of 
employees 



Average 
full-time 

hours 
per week 



Average 

rate of 

wages 

per hour 



Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 



Lasting Department 



Turn lasters, hand, 
male: 

Massachusetts 

Missouri 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


8 
3 

2 
10 

3 
5 
4 


239 

65 

29 
187 

60 
143 

29 


53-2 
52.3 
55-o 
52.2 
56-9 
55-7 
54-9 


.492 

.460 
.402 
•465 
•485 
•389 
•351 


26.11 

24.09 
22.13 
24.27 
27.47 
21.72 
19.27 


Total 


35 


752 


53-8 


$0,453 


$24.34 


Turn sewers, male: 
Massachusetts.. . . 

New York 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


8 
6 

4 
7 


22 
12 
23 
10 


52.9 
51-3 
55-3 

54-5 


• 559 
.560 
.412 
•503 


29-45 
28.81 
22.85 
27.28 


Total 


25 


67 


53-7 


$0,500 


$26.75 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



235 



Table XIX. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, in the 
United States, by Years, 19P7 to 1918. 









at 

E-*< 


•SS 


•l| 


Employees whose full-time 
hours per week were — 




& 


.O O 

ET3. 


=3 * 

4> O, 


2£ 

60 „, 


.i'E 

0} >, 




Occupation, sex, and 
number of establish- 


g M 


^3 
C j^ 











ments 




4 ts 


2 5 






§•8 

« c 

cS 3 


3 




S c 
> 3 
O 


3 


<o 







Bottoming Department 












Goodyear welters, 
male : 
14 establishments. . . . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 

1910 
1911 


67 
7c 
74 
81 


Si 

5C 
55 

55 

s« 

5C 


.9 $p.409 
.p .409 
•7 -444 
.6 .422 

•2 .437 
.0 .464 


$22.86 
22.90 
24-73 






22 
23 
27 
29 

79 

78 


19 
18 

21 


26 
29 
26 
32 

61 

52 


























45 establishments. . . . 


27S 
289 


24.47 
25.88 




19 
27 


62 
79 


52 
51 


60 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


392 
411 


5 5 


.0 -4S2 
■8 .454 


2521 
25.27 




27 
4P 


132 

162 


93 
68 


77 
84 


63 

57 


70 establishments. . . . 


1912 
1913 


466 

472 


55 
55 


.8 .445 
•3 -SOI 


24-75 
27.60 




4° 
44 


177 
188 


91 
139 


98 

85 


6p 
16 


66 establishments. . . . 


1913 
1914 


458 
418 


55 

ss 


•2 -5P3 
.p .508 


27.71 
27.9P 




44 
48 


188 
145 


136 
167 


74 
52 


16 
6 


67 establishments 


1914 
1916 


417 
410 


55 
55 


.1 .5P6 
.1 .519 


27.85 
28.49 




48 
63 


145 
134 


153 
143 


60 
52 


11 
18 


84 establishments. . . . 


1916 
1918 


445 
423 


SS 

52 


.0 .522 
■ 5 -621 


28.6P 
32.43 


t 
193 


63 

74 


146 
63 


156 
62 


55 
29 


19 
2 


93 establishments. . . . 


1918 


469 


S2 


.3 .620 


3229 


232 


74 


67 


62 


32 


2 


Rough rounders, 
male: 


1007 
1908 
1909 


48 
49 
54 
56 


56 
56 

S5 


p .387 
p .368 
8 -434 


21.67 

2P.6l 

24.22 
22.81 






13 

13 
18 

19 

41 
39 


15 
16 
16 
t6 


2C 
20 

20 












44 establishments. . . . 


1910 

IQII 


165 
167 


S6 
56 


7 .4P6 
5 -438 


22.85 

24.56 


1 
1 




40 
59 


44 


39 

35 


60 establishments 


1911 
1912 


221 
248 


S6 

55 


3 -436 
9 -439 


24.44 
24.41 




2 
23 


65 
88 


68 
5P 


43 
50 


43 
37 


69 establishments. . . . 


1912 
1913 


273 
265 


SS 

55 


9 -435 
2 .497 


24.21 
27-37 




23 

27 


93 

99 


60 

84 


56 
47 


41 
8 


67 establishments. . . . 


1913 
1914 


261 
240 


SS 

54 


2 -497 
9 -5p6 


27-35 

27.74 




27 
34 


99 

73 


83 
102 


44 
26 


8 
S 



* From Table A. - 
1907 to 1918. U. S. 



- Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot ond Shoe Industry: 
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



236 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XIX. — Continued 





i-i 


'o g 

J2 O 

So. 

IS 


0) 

0> 0. 
53 S 


"o 3 

j) 0, 

be 
£ 0) 

53 mi 


S bo 

** s 

=='S 

bo >> 
g? 


Employees whose full-time 
hours per week were — 


Occupation, sex, and 
number of establish- 
ments 


Over 48 and 
under 51 

51 and 
under 54 

54 


-d 

d t^ 

■4-u 

53 i 
> 3 



_ 

S n 

3 







Bottoming Department 


67 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


243 
24s 


55-i 
55-i 


.500 
•503 


27.52 
27.64 


34 

.... 38 


73 
71 


95 
93 


32 
32 


9 
• II 


84 establishments. . . . 


1916 
1918 


281 

254 


54-9 
S2.5 


•494 
•597 


27.06 
32.39 


6 40 
116 36 


86 

42 


103 

39 


34 
20 


12 

I 


97 establishments.. . . 


1918 


285 


S2.4 


•593 


31-99 


138 36 


45 


41 


24 


I 


Goodyear stitchers, 
male: 
21 establishments.. . . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


215 
214 
221 
224 


55-3 
55-1 
55-3 
55-2 


•403 
•376 
'394 
.388 


22.29 
20.72 
21.79 
21.42 


23 
.... 21 

26 
.... 21 


93 
92 
76 
77 


45 
59 
66 
70 


54 
42 
53 
56 




45 establishments. . . . 


1910 
1911 


366 
393 


56.3 
56.0 


•374 
.388 


20.97 
21.65 


3 21 
3 28 


88 
106 


96 
118 


89 
81 


69 

62 


61 establishments.. . . 


1911 
1912 


S29 
562 


55-9 
55-9 


.387 
.385 


21.56 
21.40 


.... 28 
.... 38 


184 
221 


133 
103 


no 
i°S 


74 
95 


70 establishments. . . . 


191 2 
1913 


627 
642 


55-9 

SS-2 


.376 
•399 


20.96 
21.96 


.... 38 
.... 60 


232 
267 


125 
184 


128 
119 


10 

1 


67 establishments. . . . 


1913 
1914 


633 
509 


55-i 
54-9 


.398 
.413 


21.87 
22.65 


.... 60 
.... 73 


267 
190 


185 

231 


109 
68 


12 

7 


65 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


559 

557 


55-o 
S5-o 


■4r2 
•433 


22.62 
23-76 


.... 73 
.... 83 


190 

188 


208 
198 


75 
68 


13 

20 


90 establishments. . . . 


1916 
1918 


630 

600 


54-9 
52.5 


•434 
• 524 


23-74 
27-39 


15 9o 
279 93 


210 
92 


217 
82 


77 
52 


21 
2 


ios establishments... 


1918 


680 


52-4 


■527 


27.47 


333 95 


103 


89 


58 


2 


McKay sewers, 
male: 
5 establishments. . . . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


34 
25 
28 
26 


55-2 
55-3 

55-7 
55-2 


.288 
•3ii 

• 274 

• 279 


15.90 

17.20 
15-26 

15-40 


14 

9 

9 

.... 10 




11 

9 

8 
7 


9 

7 

11 

9 




28 establishments. . . . 


rgio 
1911 


95 

107 


57-1 
56.7 


.290 
.290 


T6.46 
i6.35 


] 10 
1 13 


5 
7 


24 
29 


30 
43 


25 
14 


30 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


129 

128 


56.5 
S6.3 


.296 

.285 


16.63 
16.10 


13 
3 


9 

24 


49 
40 


43 
5o 


15 
n 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 

TABLE XIX. — Continued 



237 















Employees whose full-time 








Eli 


■S!i 


g BO 


hours per week were — 






"o V 


— & 


SJ 




















Occupation, sex, and 


ri 


V >, 




** V 


3 rf 


•0 

C H 


■* 




T3 


O 




number of establish- 
ments 


>H 


'go. 


M in 

Si 3 


S ^ 

QJ Ul 

> g 


b0.>> 


OO >- 


C hi 
ed u 

i/-> C 


■* 


CTJ so 


•a* 




^0 








< A 


< £ 


<i 


O 


3 




> 3 


3 









Bottomin 


g Department 












32 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1013 


131 
136 


56 

55 


1 
6 


.286 
•319 


16.00 

17.70 




3 

5 


26 

35 


42 
62 


52 
30 


8 
4 


32 establishments... . 


1013 
1914 


128 
130 


55 
55 


5 
5 


•319 
•343 


17.68 
19.00 


'"8 


5 

7 


35 
6 


63 

74 


21 
31 


4 
4 


30 establishments.. . . 


1014 
1916 


123 
136 


55 
55 


7 
7 


•327 
■341 


18.17 
18.91 


8 
8 


7 
9 


7 
23 


79 
51 


17 
33 


5 
12 


53 establishments. . . . 


1016 
1918 


i95 

186 


55 
52 


2 
8 


•359 

•448 


19-75 

23.48 


15 
73 


14 
15 


37 
60 


83 
24 


34 
14 


12 


62 establishments.. . . 


1918 


203 


52 


9 


•449 


23-56 


r, 


16 


62 


30 


18 




Heelers, male: 
31 establishments.. . . 


ion 
1912 


115 

124 


55 
55 


8 
7 


•403 
•391 


22.52 
21.71 




10 

8 


33 
46 


26 

25 


44 
39 


2 
6 


67 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


254 
269 


56 

55 


2 
4 


.378 
.424 


21.17 
23-41 




9 
12 


87 
114 


49 
83 


69 

52 


40 
8 


72 establishments.. . . 


1913 
1914 


291 

293 


55 
55 


3 

1 


•424 
.400 


23-32 
21.98 


7 


21 

38 


121 

70 


87 
120 


54 
48 


8 
10 


76 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


3°5 
323 


55 
55 


3 
3 


•403 
.429 


22.22 
23.66 


7 
6 


38 
4- 1 


73 
81 


116 
116 


57 
59 


14 
19 


1 24 establishments. . . 


1916 
1918 


425 
39i 


55 
52 



8 


•431 
.507 


23.60 
26.62 


20 
153 


56 
55 


106 
76 


161 
74 


61 

32 


21 

1 


137 establishments... 


1918 


419 


52.8 


.502 


26.37 


166 


55 


80 


80 


37 


1 


Heelers, wood, 
male: 
18 establishments.. . . 


1918 


248 


54-i 


•477 


25-61 


48 


68 


31 


38 


63 




Heel trimmers or 
shavers, male: 
23 establishments. . . . 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


99 
84 
82 
91 


55-i 
55-2 
55-3 
55-2 


.438 
•439 

■ 447 
•443 


24-13 
24-23 
24.72 
24-45 




25 
15 
12 
17 


24 
22 
22 
21 


29 
29 
28 
31 


21 
18 
20 
22 




55 establishments. . . . 


1910 
1911 


189 
193 


56.6 
56.5 


.410 
.415 


23.03 
23-34 


1 
1 


17 
16 


27 
29 


54 
59 


5o 
52 


40 
36 


71 establishments.. . . 


1911 
1912 


246 
239 


56.5 
56.0 


• 415 

• 415 


23-32 
23.10 


.... 


16 
18 


47 
70 


80 
56 


60 
63 


43 
32 



238 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XIX. — Continued 







S3 >. 

B g. 
a B 




B-* 

=3 * 

■S u 

ra O. 
60 m 


■S3 

gig 

< * 


V 
B 60 

•a a 
11 

*•• 4) 

" ?>. 

MJ 

gj*l 
< * 


Employees whose full-time 
hours per week were — 


Occupation, sex, and 
number of establish- 
ments 


-0 

« H 

rt in 

00 |_ 

> 3 

O 


^2 

9 * 

3 


Ti- 
to 


i *• 

» in 

0) 

6 3 


t3o 

si 

3 





Bottoming Department 


8 i establishments.. . . 


1912 
IOI3 


252 
277 


56.0 

55-4 


.420 

•448 


23-39 
24.74 




18 
30 


75 
90 


61 
91 


66 
59 


32 
7 


77 establishments.. . . 


1913 
IOI4 


271 
262 


55-3 
55-1 


■443 
•439 


24.46 
24.14 


"6 


30 

37 


90 
5i 


89 
123 


55 
40 


7 
5 


75 establishments.. . . 


IOI4 
1916 


258 
284 


55-2 
55-0 


.428 
•454 


23.54 
24.92 


6 
6 


37 
49 


5i 
64 


in 
112 


44 
40 


9 
13 


US establishments.. . 


1916 
IOl8 


3SS 
323 


54-9 
52.6 


•449 
• 542 


24-55 
28.33 


16 
134 


54 
50 


82 
59 


145 
60 


43 
19 


IS 

1 


128 establishments.. . 


IOl8 


35o 


52.6 


•535 


27.99 


149 


50 


61 


64 


25 


1 


Heel breasters, 
male: 
35 establishments. . . . 


IOII 
IOI2 


76 

77 


56.1 

55-7 


.291 

.302 


16.23 
16.74 




2 
8 


20 

23 


20 
19 


31 
23 


3 

4 


7 s establishments. . . . 


IOI2 
1913 


163 
171 


S5-9 

55-4 


• 295 
■313 


16.36 
17.27 




16 
17 


48 
57 


38 

56 


40 
34 


21 

7 


73 establishments. . . . 


IOI3 
IOI4 


167 
161 


55-4 

SS-2 


.310 
.306 


17.10 
16.81 


3 


17 
20 


57 
35 


54 
73 


32 

27 


7 
3 


70 establishments.. . . 


I914 
1916 


157 
176 


55-3 
54-9 


.300 
•314 


16.51 
17.30 


2 
3 


20 

27 


35 
43 


65 

74 


31 
19 


4 
10 


go establishments. . . . 


I916 
1918 


218 
196 


55-1 
S3-o 


•321 
•413 


17.64 
21.79 


5 
69 


32 
35 


53 
33 


84 
39 


34 
18 


10 
2 


113 establishments... 


I9l8 


218 


52.9 


.412 


21.70 


85 


36 


33 


43 


19 


2 


Edge trimmers, 
male: 
23 establishments 


1907 
I908 
I909 
I9IO 


283 
302 
287 
3°S 


55-3 
55-i 
55-2 
55.o 


.404 
.386 
•397 

.401 


22.34 
21.27 
21.91 
22.06 




46 

48 
46 
58 


93 
113 
93 
97 


79 
83 
83 


77 
62 
65 
67 




55 establishments.. . . 


I9IO 
I9II 


573 
615 


56.4 
56.2 


.382 
•390 


21.44 
21.80 


3 

4 


58 
55 


117 
139 


137 
175 


137 
140 


121 
102 


71 establishments... . 


I9II 
1912 


765 
751 


56.1 
55-9 


•389 
.386 


21-73 
21.48 




55 
5i 


220 
264 


200 
146 


174 
192 


116 
98 


81 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


827 
838 


55-9 
55-4 


.380 
.410 


21.15 
22.66 




5i 
49 


285 
314 


176 

285 


214 
160 


101 
30 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 

TABLE XIX. — Continued 



239 















Employees whose full-time 








6-* 


~% 


S S 


hours per week were — 






Sg 


'2 v 


trt"^ 




















Occupation, sex, and 




V >> 


a >- 




3 S 










_ 




number of establish- 
ments 


!* 


£0. 


« a. 

M en 


4> k. 
4> ^ 


00 1* 


S IK 


^f 











'A*> 


V 


> s 




10 C 


lij 


5 c 


^ 


O 








< 


< s 


<* 


> 3 

O 


9 




> 3 
O 


3 





Bottoming Department 



77 establishments.. . . 


1013 
1914 


8lS 
839 


55-3 
55-o 


.411 
.404 


22.66 
22.18 


19 


49 

100 


314 
220 


282 
363 


140 
122 


30 
IS 


77 establishments.. . . 


1014 
1916 


827 
835 


55-i 
55-i 


•398 
.426 


21.90 
23.38 


19 
16 


100 
109 


220 
234 


337 
325 


130 
123 


21 
28 


125 establishments.. . 


1916 
1918 


l,o53 
940 


54-6 
52.5 


.421 
•546 


23.06 
28.51 


49 

420 


118 
130 


301 
177 


422 
144 


132 
65 


31 
4 


138 establishments.. . 


1918 


1,015 


52.5 


• 545 


28.44 


464 


130 


188 


152 


77 


4 


Edge setters, male: 


1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 

1910 

run 


134 
142 
ISO 
163 

560 
573 


56.0 
56.2 
56.1 
55-9 

s6-3 
56.3 


.400 
•351 
.381 
■385 

•373 
.380 


22.40 
19/3 
2i,37 
21.52 

20.94 
21.31 






3i 
29 
35 

34 

97 
113 


50 
48 
53 
58 

142 
148 


5.? 
65 
62 
71 

146 

147 




























54 establishments.. . . 


3 
4 


72 
60 


100 
101 


68 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


722 
698 


56.3 
55-8 


.380 
■389 


21.29 
21.63 




60 
52 


191 

257 


170 
149 


177 
142 


124 
98 


78 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


789 
815 


55-8 
55-3 


■379 
•413 


21.05 
22.78 




52 
64 


273 
300 


190 
276 


171 
148 


103 

27 


77 establishments.. . . 


1913 
1914 


826 
827 


55-3 
SS-i 


.411 
.410 


22.70 
22.54 


20 


64 
109 


300 

187 


276 
366 


IS9 
127 


27 
18 


78 establishments 


1914 
1916 


819 
77o 


SS-i 
55-i 


•405 
.413 


22.27 
22.65 


28 
24 


109 

104 


187 
I9S 


331 
302 


133 
116 


31 
29 


127 establishments... 


1916 
1918 


941 

869 


54-9 
52.7 


.412 
•524 


22.52 
27.55 


So 
348 


116 
140 


246 
148 


371 
163 


142 
67 


16 
3 


138 establishments. . . 


1918 


924 


52-7 


•525 


27-57 


38s 


140 


153 


166 


77 


3 


Heel scourers, 
male: 
35 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


125 

154 


54-8 
55-5 


.291 
.294 


16.12 
16.25 




7 
15 


44 
59 


30 
24 


42 
52 


2 

4 


78 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


342 
364 


56-0 
55-4 


.289 
■314 


16.09 
17-35 




20 
36 


116 
123 


67 
122 


89 
66 


SO 
17 


76 establishments. . . . 


1913 
1914 


360 
345 


55-4 
55-2 


•313 
.312 


17.29 
17.18 


7 


36 

44 


123 
78 


121 
151 


63 
57 


17 
8 



240 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XIX- — Concluded 









m 






Employees whose full-time 








S-^ 


o 3 


S M 


hours per week were — 






"o g 


— & 




■J3,ci 


















Occupation, sex, and 


d 


a> >> 


.2 fc 


2 g 


"3 S 


T3 












number of establish- 


01 


3. S 


V 81 


01 Q, 


"oj w 


aj in 


-d m 






•&\o 




ments 


|X 


t£ m 


aj <g 


M^i 


OO u 


aj u 


■* 


*± i_ 


3 n 


o 






£ «3 


n 3 






Z"& 


m"« 




l-."* 


t-T3 










J) c 
























^ 


< & 


<5 s 


> 3 
O 


3 




> 3 
O 


3 





Bottoming Department 



76 establishments.. . . 


1914 
igi6 


3Si 
384 


SS-o 
55-2 


■305 
•342 


16.84 
18.84 


7 
4 


44 
62 


78 
96 


144 
142 


64 
60 


14 
20 


117 establishments... 


1916 
1918 


484 
439 


55-o 
52.; 


•343 
■430 


18.81 
22.86 


18 
181 


68 
58 


121 
88 


189 

73 


66 
37 


22 
2 


129 establishments.. . 


1918 


470 


52.7 


.438 


22.92 


198 


58 


92 


77 


43 


2 


Heel burnishers, 
male: 
33 establishments. . . . 


1911 
1912 


106 

108 


55 
55 


6 

4 


■306 
•313 


16.97 
17-31 




2 
5 


42 
45 


27 
25 


34 
3c 


1 

3 


74 establishments.. . . 


1912 
1913 


254 
268 


56 

SS 


1 
4 


.292 
•313 


16.31 
17.29 




13 
15 


84 
108 


57 
83 


63 
5) 


37 
11 


75 establishments.. . . 


1913 
1914 


280 
261 


55 
55 


5 
3 


•317 
•323 


17-54 
17.85 


4 


IS 
26 


108 
59 


90 
118 


56 
46 


11 

8 


75 establishments. . . . 


1914 
1916 


262 
261 


55 

55 


5 
5 


■315 
•331 


17.47 
18.32 


4 
5 


26 
26 


59 
69 


121 
92 


40 
52 


12 
17 


117 establishments. . . 


1916 
1918 


349 
301 


55 
52 


3 
8 


•323 
■431 


17.83 
22.62 


14 
125 


31 

34 


92 

55 


1-34 
57 


59 
29 


19 
1 


128 establishments.. . 


1918 


325 


52 


8 


•433 


22.66 


141 


34 


57 


59 


33 


1 


Buffers, male: 
36 establishments.. . . 


1911 
1912 


174 
170 


55 

55 


8 
8 


• 294 
■307 


16.37 
17.06 




5 
5 


51 
52 


49 
48 


67 
58 


2 

7 


72 establishments. . . . 


I912 
1913 


338 

354 


56 
55 





.289 
■319 


16.09 

17-57 




21 
23 


107 
123 


67 
134 


105 

57 


38 
17 


72 establishments.. . . 


1913 

1914 


358 
370 


55 
55 


3 

2 


.318 
.310 


17-52 
17.06 


14 


23 
33 


126 
75 


132 
181 


60 
59 


17 
8 


72 establishments ... . 


1914 
I916 


364 
359 


55 
55 


3 
2 


.306 
■ 324 


16.89 
17.88 


14 
13 


33 
30 


74 
83 


165 

164 


66 
56 


12 
13 


119 establishments.. . 


I916 
1918 


509 
442 


55 
52 



7 


•324 
.422 


17.78 
22.10 


24 
182 


43 
59 


133 
78 


235 
87 


60 
35 


14 

1 


129 establishments. . . 


I9l8 


476 


52.7 


■424 


22.20 


205 


59 


79 


90 


42 


1 



THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



.241 



Table XX.* Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 
igi8. 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number of 
employees 



Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 



Avera ge 
rate of 
wages 

per hour 



Average 
full-time 

weekly 
earnings 



Bottoming Department 



Goodyear welters, 
male: 
Illinois 


7 
5 

29 
3 
7 
6 

10 
6 
8 

12 


31 
20 
222 
9 
26 
47 
30 
26 
24 
34 


50-9 


$0 


645 
598 
661 
574 
517 
56S 
691 
565 
594 
SOS 


$32.62 
32.73 
33-77 
31-41 
28.45 
28.32 
36.18 
3I-70 
32.81 
27-34 


Massachusetts. . . . 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


51-2 

54-7 
55-8 
50. 2 
52.2 
56.2 
55-1 
54-4 


Total 


93 


469 


S2.3 


$0,620 


$32.29 


Rough rounders, 
male: 


7 
31 
10 

6 
10 

6 

8 
19 


22 
108 
25 
33 
21 
18 
20 
38 






35-64 
34-23 
26.27 
27-45 
32.13 
29.09 
40.70 
27.92 


Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio • 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


SO 
55 
50 
52 
56 
54 
54 


9 
1 
3 
4 
3 
9 
3 




673 
483 
546 
610 
519 
449 
514 


Total 


97 


285 


52.4 


$0,593 


$31-99 


Goodyear stitchers, 
male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylva nia 

Wisconsin • 

Other States 


8 
5 

34 
3 

11 
6 

10 
7 
9 
4 
8 


49 

26 

286 

II 

60 
79 
50 
37 
41 
17 
24 


51-6 
54-5 
5i-i 
54-7 
55-7 
50.3 
52.0 
56.1 
55-1 
54-o 
54-2 


• 530 
•511 
•592 
.483 
.410 
•474 
•551 
.460 
■458 
•429 
•492 


27.06 
27-94 
30.24 
26.46 
22.49 
23-79 
28.76 
25-85 
25-25 
23.11 
26.63 


Total 


i°S 


680 


52.4 


$0,527 


$27.47 



* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Bool and Shoe Industry: 
IQ07 to igiS.. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



242 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XX. — Continued 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number of 
employees 



Average 
full-time 

hours 
per week 



Average 

rate of 

wages 

per hour 



Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 



Bottoming Department 



McKay sewers, male: 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

Ohio 


3 

26 
5 
4 
S 
7 
12 


35 
77 
25 
14 
19 
15 
18 


54-1 
52.0 
52.7 
52.7 
49.4 
56.6 
55-8 




450 
470 

420 

450 
524 


24-31 

24.26 

21.85 

23-49 
25.84 


Other States 


.378 


21.08 


Total 


62 


203 


52.9 


$0,449 








Heelers, male: 


10 
5 

52 

13 
9 

14 
9 
9 
4 

12 


28 
29 
153 
42 
33 
47 
29 
23 
14 

21 


52.4 
54-2 
51.8 
54-2 
5l-o 
S0.8 
56.0 
55-5 
54-6 
54-6 


•545 
•513 
•527 
•458 
.476 
■551 
.441 
.426 
.419 
•493 


28.14 
27.85 




Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

New York 

Ohio 


27.19 
24-51 
24.19 
28.09 


Pennsylva nia 

Wisconsin 


23-78 
22.80 
26.87 


Total 


137 


419 


52.8 


$0,502 


$26.37 






Heelers, wood, male: 
Massachusetts 


6 
4 
2 
3 
3 


77 
47 
36 
81 
7 


54-2 
49.9 
52.4 
57-1 
54-4 


• SOO 

• 552 
•514 
•38S 
.578 


27.11 


New York 

Other States 


26.95 
21.97 
31-45 


Total 


18 


248 


54-1 


$0,477 


$25.61 






Heel trimmers or 
shavers, male: 


9 
5 

48 

12 
9 

13 
9 
9 

14 


28 
22 
132 
32 
25 
38 
21 
27 

25 


52.3 
54-3 
51.6 
53-3 
51.2 
50.9 
56.0 
S5-o 
54-4 


.5*8 


27.58 






527 

586 

440 
500 
680 
482 
325 

483 


28.62 


Massachusetts .... 


30.19 


New Hampshire. . . 

New York 

Ohio 


25-47 
34-77 
26.98 
17.90 
26.23 


Pennsylvania 

Other States 


Total 


128 


35° 


52.6 















THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 

TABLE XX. — Continued 



243 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number of 
employees 



Average 
full-time 

hours 
per week 



Average 
rate of 
wages 

per hour 



Average 
full-time 
weekly 
earnings 



Bottoming Department 



Heel breasters, male: 
Massachusetts. . . . 


45 
9 
9 

11 
7 
9 

23 


84 
20 
15 
23 
IS 
19 
42 


Si-9 
54-2 
Sl-3 
5io 
56.1 
55-i 
53-6 




472 
321 
353 
475 
377 
3ii 
383 


24-39 


New Hampshire. . . 

New York 

Ohio 


18.01 
24.36 


Pennsylvania 

Other States 


17.18 
20.59 


Total 


113 


218 


52.9 


$0,412 








Edge trimmers, male: 


IO 
S 

54 

13 
9 
4 

13 
9 
9 
3 
4 
5 


60 
54 
451 
91 
88 
7 
95 
68 
44 
15 
20 
22 


52.4 
S4-5 
51.6 
54-2 
50.7 
54-6 
50.7 
56.0 
55-o 
54-° 
54-4 
54-8 




2715 
28.62 






526 
584 
478 
539 
577 
606 
465 
416 
454 
5io 
486 


Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 


3°oi 
25.60 
27.21 
31-34 
3o.77 
26.08 
22.98 


Wisconsin 

Other States 


27-73 
26.64 


Total 


138 


i>oiS 


52. 5 


$0,545 








Edge setters, male: 
Illinois 


10 
5 

54 
3 

13 
9 
4 

14 
8 
9 
3 
4 
2 


60 
34 

368 
15 
86 
65 
15 

107 
72 
64 
13 
16 
9 


52-0 
54-6 
51-7 
54-7 
53-8 
50.5 
54-4 
Si-3 
56.1 
55-4 
54-o 
54-6 
5S-o 




5ii 
507 
572 
435 
458 
485 
.385 
577 
480 
474 
453 
419 
444 


26.36 


Massachusetts. . . . 


29.41 
23-79 
24-52 
24-45 
24-55 
29.68 
26.97 
26.35 
24.47 
22.89 
24.42 


New Hampshire. . . 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 




Wisconsin 

Other States 


Total 


138 


924 


52.7 




$27.57 









244 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XX. — Concluded 



Occupation, sex and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number of 
employees 



Average 
full-time 

hours 
per week 



Average 
rate of 
wages 

per hour 



Average 
full-time 

weekly 
earnings 



Bottoming Department 



Heel scourers, male: 


IO 

5 

47 

3 

13 

8 

13 

9 

9 

4 

8 


29 

27 
163 
9 
61 
39 
55 
35 
25 
13 
14 


52 

54 
5i 
54 
54 
5o 
50 
55 
55 
54 
54 








22.05 
25.70 
25.68 
25-53 
18.19 
19.27 
25-56 
20.91 
19-53 
17.64 
21.99 




5 
7 
8 
1 
4 
5 
9 
3 
2 
4 




472 
498 
466 
340 
383 
507 
373 
351 
327 
392 


Massachusetts .... 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


Total 


I2g 


470 


52.7 


$0,438 


$22.92 


Heel burnishers, 
male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


9 

4 
5° 

12 

9 
14 
8 
8 
4 

IO 


19 
11 
134 
35 
25 
29 
28 
15 
10 
19 


52.4 
54-5 
51.6 
54-o 
51. 2 
51.0 
56.4 
55-2 
54-4 
54-3 




456 
461 
487 
349 
389 
472 
348 
372 
326 
391 


23.48 
25.07 
25.01 
18.68 
19.86 
24.11 
19.70 
20.71 
17.68 
21.23 


Total 


128 


325 


52.8 


$0,433 


$22.66 


Buffers, male: 

Maine 

Massachusetts .... 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 
New York .... 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Other States 


IO 
4 

Si 

13 
9 

13 
7 
8 

14 


34 
26 
183 
42 
49 
48 
19 
40 
35 


52 
54 
5i 
54 
50 
50 
55 
55 
54 


6 
3 
8 
5 
7 
5 
8 

9 




414 

517 

464 

342 

395 - 

486 

425 

288 

367 


21.56 
28.08 
23-94 
18.54 
20.04 
24-45 
23-69 
15-92 
20.12 


Total 


129 


476 





















CHAPTER XII 

FINISHING, TREEING, PACKING AND SHIPPING 

Additional Departments. In a large shoe factory 
the magnitude of manufacture calls for separate de- 
partments of considerable size for the finishing and 
treeing of the shoe, and for the packing and shipping 




Buffing Machines Placed Longitudinally with Building 

of the completed product. There will be found in 
especially large establishments, also, various other 
departments, or even small factories, manufacturing 

245 



246 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

particular supplies or doing particular work. Such 
are departments or factories for the manufacture 
of leather parts of shoes, for the preparation of 
accessory materials, and for the provision for work 
that would otherwise have to be given to outside 
companies or individuals. We have already spoken 
of the heel, toe box, and counter departments and 
factories. The second division is seen in cases 
where the great shoe manufacturing corporation 
conducts its own sawmill and factories for the 
making of wood shipping cases and paper cartons in 
which shoes are sent out to the trade. An example 
of the third division is the printing department or 
shop now being added to many factories because 
of the great cost of printing the many business forms 
necessary for office and factory use, and because of 
the continual increase in the output of advertising 
material. 

All such factories, departments, and shops provide 
numerous opportunities for employment according 
to the trades involved, but with little interchange of 
labor between them and the shoe factories except 
where the manufacture of shoe parts is involved. 
Then, of course, it is a matter of employment in a 
subdivision of the shoe industry. 

Finishing. It has already been said that in a 
large shoe manufacturing establishment the finishing 
processes detailed in the preceding chapter would 



FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 247 

constitute a separate department. In a small 
factory, however, the only part of the finishing that 




Operating the Buffing Machine 

would be distinctly separate from other operations 
is tip repairing. 



248 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The Tip Repairing Department. In the passage 
of the shoe through the factory we have seen the 
vamp, the linings, the toe box, and the tip brought 
together in the completed toe of the shoe. Some- 
times, also, oiled paper is added as a protection 
against injury in the handling of the shoe. All of 
these parts give a thickness of about one-half inch 
to the toe of the ordinary shoe. In lasting so many 
thicknesses it is especially hard to draw the tip 
evenly over the last without injuring the leather 
of the tip. This danger is considerably increased 
by the use of patent leather, which is easily broken 
or scarred, for tips. The use of patent leather is so 
general that tip repairing is a problem of consider- 
able magnitude in all factories. In the general 
handling to which a shoe is subjected in passing 
through the various departments of the factory, 
tips are likely to be scratched and broken. In the 
case of ordinary leather scratches, scars, or other 
marks can be quite easily disposed of by rubbing 
down, by hand or upon machine brushes But 
patent leather, having a varnished surface, is re- 
paired with greater difficulty. If the injury is con- 
siderable the old enamel or varnished surface is 
sandpapered entirely off, and a new coat of varnish 
is applied by hand. This is allowed to dry and is 
polished, giving usually an entirely fresh and perfect 
surface. This work is mainly a hand process, 



FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 249 

usually done by women, though recently a tip re- 
pairing machine has been introduced in some 
factories. 




Climax Finishing Shaft 

Tip repairing calls for careful observation, pains- 
taking application to a process often requiring con- 



250 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

siderable time upon a single shoe, deftness of touch, 
and good judgment. 

The Treeing Department. Treeing is the method 
of making the shoe conform perfectly to the shape of 
the last, and of restoring the finish belonging to the 
leather, after its passing through many hands. The 
last is removed in this department, or before reach- 
ing this department, to allow for the processes of 
treeing. The shoe is first examined for tacks or 
other imperfections inside. Bottom linings or heel 
pads are put in by girls, when this has not been done 
in the making room. The shoe is then placed upon 
the tree arm, there being several arms revolving 
upon a machine, so that one shoe may be worked 
upon while others are drying. The department is 
sometimes called the treeing and dressing room. 
Nearly every kind of leather or shoe material re- 
quires a distinct method of handling and of dressing 
or finishing. Dirt or other materials that have 
adhered to the surface of the shoe in making are 
removed by a brush which is adapted to the surface 
of the leather, or by washing with different cleaners. 
Then an oil lubricant or dressing is applied to fill 
the pores of the leather. The covers of fabric shoes 
and of shoes made of delicate shades of leather are 
removed by hand, cutting with a knife closely 
around the sole so that no trace of the cover remains 
and no injury results to the shoe. The operator 



FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 251 

may have to restain some leathers as well as to fill 
the pores with oil, so as to bring out the richest 




Stitch and Upper Cleaning Machine 

effects of the surface. There are many special 
processes in various factories, according to particular 
styles of shoe and kinds of finish used. 



252 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Ironing. When the surface of the upper has been 
fully restored the shoe is ironed upon the tree to give 
it perfection and permanent form. Rubbing over 
with the warm or hot iron is a very important and 
careful process, and is done regularly by men. 

Inspecting. Slight repairs not made before the 
processes of treeing are made after it ; and the shoe 
is inspected before passing out of the department. 
Shoes intended for samples or display in store 
windows have a wooden form placed in them ; rather 
than a last, to keep them in shape. 

The " treeing man " should be familiar with the 
nature and tanning of leather, and with the processes 
of shoe making, so that he may correct defects in 
leather or poor workmanship in the earlier processes 
of the factory. 

Embossing. Then on the bottom of the shoe or 
upon the lining at the top a trade-mark or the name 
of the maker of the shoe is embossed or stamped. 

Positions in the~ Treeing Department. The posi- 
tions uusually found in treeing and dressing are the 
following : 



I. 


The Superintendent. 


7- 


Lacers. 


2. 


Foreman. 




8. 


Repairers. 


3- 


Instructor. 




9- 


Treeing Man 


4- 


Inspectors. 




10. 


Floor Boy. 


5- 


Embossers. 




ii. 


Cripple Boy. 


6. 


Toe Crease 


Stampers. 







FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 253 

The Packing Department. The great advance in 
shoe manufacture during the last half century is 




Operating the Stamping Machine 

seen not only by studying machinery and processes, 
but by observing the excellent condition in which 



2 54 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

boots and shoes are sent out to the trade. Before 
the use of special cartons, which is distinctive of the 
present day, shoes were tied in bundles or packed 
loose in barrels and boxes, often reaching the 
customers in wrinkled and battered condition. Now 
a single pair, except in the case of heavy and cheap 
grades, is packed in a pasteboard box or carton. 

For packing, shoes are first brushed upon the heels 
and bottoms, inspected, and placed out on tables 
in pairs by sizes. The labels on the ends of the 
cartons are stamped in a machine with style, stock 
number, size, width, kind of leather, or other dis- 
tinguishing term. Then the shoes are wrapped in 
tissue paper and placed carefully in cartons, which 
are packed securely in wooden or fibre-board cases, 
usually with thirty-six pairs to a case, ready for 
shipment. 

Positions in the Packing Room. The work of this 
room is done mainly by girls and women, and the 
few positions are, the Superintendent, foreman, 
brushers, inspectors, carton stampers, packers, and 
floor girl. 

The Shipping Department. From the packing 
room the shoes are sent to the shipping department 
where they are placed in " assembling aisles " in 
alphabetical arrangement, according to the names of 
customers, orders and styles. Copies of original 
orders as received by salesmen are kept in the ship- 



FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 255 

ping department, and shoes are checked off upon one 
set as they come from the packing room, another 
set of orders being used for shipping. The cases of 
shoes are sent out to the freight offices accompanied 



~nn 






* ^^ — --^ 


1 ^-3— — -___ 


{■... ■-*#?*'; .L. 


)#r? m 




rtSs»"> **j»jgHw»Bl 


Ell ill 


T7 

MBWl 


iJ^x ' 


! * 


NtitttfPlMMt-*. #ull^^ 




IL^SlHP'^^ja| 




-s.* 




\ 




_, ,.^*^l 



Shipping Floor, Central Plant, W. H. McElwain Company, 
Manchester, N. H. 

by bills of lading as the time for filling each order 
approaches, and shipment is made so that the goods 
will reach each customer on a specified day. 

Foreign shipments require a great amount of de- 
tail, since they must have a different form for bills 
of lading and different weights and measures. 

Large shipments go out by freight, small ones by 
express, and by parcel post. 



256 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

After the bills of lading which are to go with ship- 
ments are made out, special tags bearing full partic- 
ulars about each shipment are sent to the book- 
keeping department so that the proper charges may 
be entered in that department. 

Positions in the Shipping Department. The posi- 
tions of the shipping department are as follows. 

i. The Superintendent. 

2. Foreman. 

3. Checkers. 

4. Assemblers. 

5. Men for casing up, sealing, nailing, and stack- 

ing goods. 

6. Truck Boys. 

7. Shippers. 

8. Clerks and Assistants. 



FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 257 

Table XXI. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rate 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, in the 
United States, by Years, 1907 to 1918. 













03 


Employees whose full-time 








%M 


"S 3 


b?n 


hours per week were — 












•g'e 




Occupation, sex. 


-a 






-d 






and number of 




-O O 




V ft 












■n ° 




establishments 


> 


£ 0. 






y >> 




C u 














►3 s 


v 3 
> O 


< & 


fe3 

> V 


Tt a; 

a 

> 3 
O 


10 3 


54 


> 3 
O 


r^T3 
3 


OO 



Finishing Department 



Treers or ironers, 
hand, male: 
17 establishments.. 



44 establishments. 
63 establishments. 
73 establishments. 
70 establishments. 
67 establishments. 
97 establishments. 



US establishments. 
Treers or ironers, 
hand, female: 
8 establishments. . 



11 establishments.. 
13 establishments.. 

12 establishments.. 
11 establishments.. 



1909 
1910 

1910 
1911 

1911 
1912 

1912 
1913 

1913 
1914 

1914 
1916 

1916 
1918 

1918 



1910 
1911 



1911 
1912 



1912 
1913 



1913 
1914 



1914 
1916 



381 
364 
377 
444 

832 
786 

1,006 
1,076 

1,143 
1,110 

1,100 
1,109 

1,095 
1,038 

1,220 
1,044 



no 
112 



107 
II I 



54-7 
54-5 
S4-6 
54-5 

55-9 
56.1 

56.0 
55-9 

55-8 
55-3 

55-3 

55-1 

55-3 
55- 1 

SS-o 

52-4 



57.8 
57-7 



58.1 

54-3 



54-4 
54-6 



54-6 
52.2 



52.1 
52.9 



$16.68 
16.02 
16.00 
i5-7o 

14.42 
14.50 

14.84 
14-57 

14.76 
15-54 

15-54 
15-45 

15-39 
16.24 

16.25 
21.31 



8.19 
8.21 

8.32 
8.35 

8.32 
8. 5 6 

8.56 
9.06 

9.06 
9.66 



144 
139 

149 
149 

160 
39 



* From Table A. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry, 
tgoy to iqiS. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



258 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XXI. — Concluded 















Employees whose full-time 








l« 


ug 


"5 d 


hours per week were — 


Occupation, sex, 




o g 


Ji. is 
"3 J; 


2^ 


=3 '3 

3 j- 


■d 






-d 






and number of 
establishment 




J2 O 

Ed. 


as. 


o> ^ 


a m 


-d io 






_^ o 

-do 








|z; u 


2 5 

<u o 

< 


ii bo 


2-^ 


> * 

o 




54 


10 .s 

> 3 

o 


^"2 

3 


6o 



Finishing Department — Concluded 



13 establishments. 



31 establishments... 

Treers or ironers, 
machine, male: 
14 establishments. . . 



23 establishments. . . 



1916 
1918 



1918 



1916 
1918 

1918 



139 
123 



236 
140 



S3-i 
S2.3 



55-3 
52.8 



• 234 
.232 



.360 
•373 



9-93 
12.17 



14-77 
18.71 



19.36 



46 



16,5 



FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 259 

Table XXII. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and 
Rate of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, by 
States, 1918. 



Occupation, sex, and 
State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number 
of employ- 



Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 



Average 

rate of 

wages per 

hour 



Average 
full-time 

weekly 
earnings 



Finishing Department 



Treers or ironers, 
hand, male: 

Illinois 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire.. . 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Other States 


7 
4 

49 
3 

II 
7 

10 
7 
6 
3 
4 
4 


94 
60 

602 
21 

103 
67 
57 
66 
32 
17 
23 
30 


50.8 
54-4 
51-5 
54-8 
53-1 
51-2 

51-3 
56.6 
55-3 
54-° 
54-8 
54-6 


$0 


414 
400 
442 
37i 
321 
423 
399 
327 
317 
465 
345 
373 


$20.92 
21.83 
22.67 
20.31 
16.87 
21.56 
20.43 
18.46 
17.54 
25.12 
18.90 
20.28 


Total 


US 


1,172 


52-3 


$0,409 


$21.28 






Treers or ironers, 
hand, female: 

New York 

Ohio 

Other States 


4 
4 
23 

31 


20 

41 

141 


50.8 
51-2 

5^-4 


.267 
.219 
.228 


13-52 
11.23 
12.29 


Total 


211 


53-3 


$0,232 


$12.25 




Treers or ironers, 
machine, male: 

Massachusetts. . . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire. . . 
Other States 


9 

4 
4 
6 


91 

34 
40 
5° 


51-7 
58.I 

50.0 
S2.4 


.383 
.284 
•376 
.412 


I9.69 
16.45 
18.79 
21.19 


Total 


23 


2IS 


52.5 


$o.373 


$1936 



* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 
IQ07 to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



260 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table XXIII. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and 
Rates of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, 
in the United States, by Years, 1907 to 1918. 









d 






Employ 


;es whose full-time hours per 








fa'.* 

.3 4) 


g 


fi M 




week were — 


















Occupation, 




° s 


~s is 


^M 


-i. d 








XI 






sex, and num- 


cU 


I'd, 




^ OJ 




C H 






s- 


— 1 ° 




ber of estab- 
lishments 


>< 


4) D, 
Si 3 


2 ft 
<L> bjO 




00 I- 


H ^ 


Tf 






O 








5- ° 


"3 £ 


'«^ 





10 C 

3 




> 3 
O 


« 3 

3 





Other Employees f (all Departments) 



Male: 
81 establish- 
ments. .. 

130 establish- 
ments 

143 establish 
ments 

Female: 
80 establish- 
ments 

129 establish- 
ments 



142 establish- 
ments 



1914 

1916 


19,667 
19,001 


55-i 
55-i 


$0,223 
.242 


$12.28 
13-32 


858 
543 


2,204 
2,555 


4,792 
5,440 


7,774 
6,672 


3,291 
2,988 


1916 

1918 


23,142 
21,967 


55-o 
52-7 


.242 
.328 


13.29 
17.20 


1,103 
9,505 


2,778 
3,191 


6,625 
4,031 


8,481 
3,263 


3,213 
1,613 


1918 


23,324 


52.7 


.327 


17.17 


10,153 


3,191 


4,393 


3,33o 


1,859 


1914 

1916 


11,502 
11,556 


54-° 
54-° 


.167 
.176 


9.00 

9.48 


.811 
691 


1,883 
1,935 


6,083 
6,161 


2,010 
2,017 


708 

752 


1916 

1918 


14,466 
15,007 


53-9 
Si-7 


.179 
.227 


9.62 
11.72 


1,237 
7,553 


2,248 
2,327 


7,988 
4,595 


2,190 
532 


803 


1918 


16,007 


51-8 


.226 


11.67 


8,136 


2,327 


4.771 


773 





748 
803 

942 

373 



398 



* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Bool and Shoe Industry; 
IQ07 to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

t In miscellaneous minor or unskilled operations not included in the tables al- 
ready given in this and other chapters. 



FINISHING, TREEING, AND SHIPPING 261 



Table XXIV. * Average and Classified Full-Time Hours per Week and Rates 
of Wages per Hour, and Average Full-Time Weekly Earnings, by States, 
1918 



Occupation, sex, 
and State 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 



Number of 
employees 



Average 

full-time 

hours per 

week 



Average 
rate of 

wages per 
hour 



Average 
full-time 

weekly 
earnings 



Other Employees t (All Departments) 



Male: 


10 

55 
2 
3 

15 

10 
4 

14 
9 
9 
3 
4 


1. 179 

1,198 

8,671 

165 

336 

2,5IO 

2,347 

2 53 

2,773 

1,837 

1,241 

390 

424 




8 


$0 




$15 






54-5 
51-7 
56.3 
55-o 
54-o 
50.6 
55-o 
51.2 
56.7 
55-2 
54-4 
54-i 




345 

348 
284 
322 
293 
338 
284 
354 
297 
266 
2gi 
282 


18 
17 
15 
17 
15 
17 
15 
18 
16 
14 
15 
15 


82 


Massachusetts.. . 

New Hampshire . 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 


93 
99 

75 
70 
08 
15 
12 
86 


Pennsylvania. . . . 
Wisconsin 


74 
84 
21 


Total 


143 


23,324 


52-7 


$0,327 


$17.17 




Female: 


10 

5 
55 

3 

14 

10 

4 

14 

9 

9 

3 

4 


895 

823 

6,150 

125 

224 

1,957 

1,171 

199 

1,515 

1,348 

962 

307 

331 




• 193 

.274 

• 245 

• 157 
.198 
.187 
.266 
.184 

• 251 
.203 
.180 
.176 
.184 






54 
51 
54 
53 
52 
50 
54 
50 
50 
53 
54 
54 




5 

4 
2 
3 
5 
5 

3 

5 


14.81 
12.55 

8.47 
• IO-59 

9.72 
13-37 
10.02 
12.58 
10.14 

963 

9-50 
10.04 


Massachusetts. . . 

Missouri 

New Hampshire . 
New Jersey 

Ohio 


Pennsylvania. . . . 


Total 


142 


16,007 


51.8 


$0,226 


$11.67 



* From Table C. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 
1907 to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

t In miscellaneous minor or unskilled operations not included in the tables al- 
ready given in this and other chapters. 



CHAPTER XIII 

EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS, WAGES, AND 
HOURS OF LABOR 

The Sex Division of Employees. Under normal 
conditions, in a shoe factory making both men's and 
women's shoes of the ordinary kinds, substantially 
the following percentages of labor are found: 

Male employees, sixty-nine per cent. 

Female employees, thirty-one per cent. 

Boys under eighteen years, one-seventh or 
fourteen per cent of male employees. 

Girls under eighteen years, one twenty-fifth 
or four per cent of female employees. 

These percentages may be given as fairly exact 
for the average shoe factory and for the boot and 
shoe industry as a whole. In factories making 
mostly heavy shoes or men's wear, however, the 
proportion of male employees runs somewhat higher 
than the sixty-nine per cent, and that of female 
employees lower than the thirty-one per cent. On 
the other hand, in factories making women's, 
children's, and infants' footwear, there will be found 
some increase in the percentage of female employ- 
ment with a corresponding decrease in the male. 

262 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 



263 



In studying the departments of shoe manufacture 
we have seen that the more difficult processes and 
the operation of heavy machines are given regularly 
to male employees. This is especially true in the 




Shoe Workers of the Thomas G. Plant Company, Boston, Mass. 
Copyright, Photo News Co. 

cutting department, in some divisions of the stitch- 
ing department, in the sole leather department, in 
the gang room, and in treeing. On the other hand, 
the lighter processes and the simpler machines are 
regularly given to girls and women, especially in 
stitching, finishing, dressing, and packing. During 
the recent war, however, women were employed 
upon some of the machines usually run by men. 



264 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Further statistical information upon employment 
in the shoe industry, in comparison with other lead- 
ing industries, is given in Table XXVII on page 
284. 

The Divisions of Employees Among Departments. 
To enable a factory to work as a whole with all 
operatives in all manufacturing departments equally 
busy each day, the division of employees among 
departments must have about the percentages 
following : 

In the cutting room, twelve per cent of all 
operatives. 

In the stitching room, twenty-seven per cent. 
In the sole leather room, twelve per cent. 
In the gang room, twenty-three per cent. 
In finishing, eight per cent. 
In treeing and dressing, ten per cent. 

Small numbers of employees, making perhaps 
seven or eight per cent, are found in minor depart- 
ments of the factory. 

At the same time the business offices employ from 
nine to ten per cent of the total number of people 
connected with the industry. 

Shoe Manufacture Highly Specialized. Shoe 
manufacture has become more and more highly 
specialized in recent years. Each factory can pro- 
duce a larger output with smaller costs when making 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 



265 



only a single or a few kinds of footwear. The large 
American market has greatly aided in this special- 
ization; an increased trade abroad, in about ninety 
different countries at the present time, makes it 
still more profitable for the American shoemaker 
to devote his plant to a single line of product in the 




The First Factory of Thomas G. Plant 

assurance that he will find a steady market. We 
find, then, factories, for example, making men's 
heavy work shoes, leg boots, walking shoes, or shoes 
for dress wear; and other factories making foot- 
wear for women, children, and infants, exclusively. 
At the same time we find the long list of -factories 
manufacturing special parts and findings. 
Seasons. One of the chief objections to entering 



266 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

into shoe manufacture is the fact that it is a seasonal 
employment. The busiest seasons are the fall and 
winter; the least busy season is the summer, with 
an average idle period of from three to eight weeks, 
coming usually in or around the month of July. 
As has been said earlier, the progressive shoe manu- 
facturers are making great efforts to obtain orders 
far enough in advance, and to study trade conditions, 
so that a year's steady employment may be pro- 
vided for the factory. Large concerns capable of 
handling extensive contracts may do this more easily; 
the small concern with a limited trade must adjust 
its output to its volume of trade and suffer usually 
from an idle season. 

In a few rare cases factories having large contracts 
or accumulations of orders make a twenty-four hour 
day, with three full shifts of employees working in 
eight-hour periods. 

Shoemaking a Trade. Shoemaking is a trade, with 
many specialized divisions. Some of these divisions, 
such as the simpler operations in the various rooms, 
are distinctly unskilled trades; others, like cutting, 
welting, and trimming edges are highly skilled trades. 
The first kind calls for a very brief period of learn- 
ing, sometimes a few days only; the other division 
includes processes requiring in many cases several 
months or even years for learning. 

The operator may learn several related processes, 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 267 

but in the large factory he remains essentially a 
worker or an expert in one. 

Entering Upon Work in a Shoe Factory. In a 
small shoe establishment, and quite regularly in a 
country town, inexperienced persons may be taken 
in to learn most processes. Persons thus learning 
branches of shoe manufacture quite often enter the 
large factories as experienced operators. In the 
large factories, especially in the great shoe centers, 
inexperienced persons are taken in only for the 
minor processes, and more often in the stitching than 
in other departments. There is quite a steady move- 
ment of the more highly skilled shoe operatives from 
factory to factory, and from one shoe center to 
another. 

Promotion. The operator who can perform 
several processes in shoemaking is usually kept upon 
the process in which his work is most needed at any 
time. Frequently a worker showing a special apti- 
tude for an advance process is put forward to learn 
it, and given permanent promotion if he becomes 
expert in it. There is not, however, such a grada- 
tion of operations in the departments of the shoe 
factory as to offer promotion regularly or to the 
many. The most conspicuous promotion is that of 
a workman who comes to understand the work of a 
room fully, with ability to direct others, to the 
position of assistant foreman or foreman. 



268 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Securing Skilled Labor. The desirabilty of 
securing employees that are skilled in their respec- 
tive branches of work is appreciated in every in- 
dustry, and in none more so perhaps than in the shoe 
industry. The truth of this assertion is evidenced 
by the methods of securing employees in different 
shoe manufacturing centers. 

" In some of these centers shoe manufacturers 
cooperate through their local association in keeping 
records as to the workmanship and character of 
their employees which have some bearing upon 
future employment. In other places each factory 
may have a bulletin board on which it makes known 
the classes of employees that are desired, but in 
both cases the kind of an operator that is wanted 
is specified, and this in itself is an indication of the 
desire of the concern to engage a skilled employee for 
that particular operation. 

" We are sometimes told by thoughtless persons 
that the amazing improvement in shoe machinery 
that has been witnessed in the last fifty years has 
practically eliminated the skill of the shoe operative. 
It would perhaps be more proper to say that the 
larger use of vastly improved machinery, subdivid- 
ing the labor of shoemaking as it has, has simplified 
shoemaking to the extent that it is much easier to 
manufacture skilled employees in the shoe factory of 
today than it was in the shoe factory of fifty years 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 269 

ago, when it was necessary to teach the shoe opera- 
tive much more of the shoemaking art than he needs 
to know at the present time." x 

The Shoe Superintendent. The superintendent of 
a shoe factory or of a department or room must be 
first of all a manager. He need not necessarily have 
exact knowledge of processes, but he must know 
much of resources, materials, equipment, employees, 
and of methods of efficiency and improvement in 
employment conditions. He must be able to work 
through subordinates and yet keep a firm and help- 
ful hand on the activities of manufacture. 

The superintendent usually comes to his position 
from the business side of the industry. Young 
men are trained for this work in some factories by a 
period in office service, of from six months to several 
years, followed by service in the factory long enough 
to make them familiar with the general features of 
manufacture. 

The superintendent may be a member of the firm 
or corporation, a stockholder, or simply an employed 
officer. His salary, as in other great lines of manu- 
facture in present times, may vary from some hun- 
dreds of dollars in a small factory or department to 
many thousands of dollars in the great corporation. 

The Shoe Foreman. The shoe foreman, on the 
other hand, rises from the bench or is promoted from 

1 Superintendent and Foreman, Boston, August 26, 1014. 



270 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

the machine. He must have intimate knowledge of 
processes and be able to train employees in them; 
he must be able to select operators for his depart- 
ment and to make their work efficient; he must be a 
master of method, of handling men at work, and of 
maintaining discipline in his room, tactful, firm, 
friendly with all, yet not forfeiting their obedience 
and respect. 

The position of the foreman is exacting. He 
stands between the superintendent and the operator 
and is responsible for the work in his department. 
He must keep every employee occupied and the work 
passing through on schedule time. His pay is 
usually about the same as that of the most expert 
operators in his room, varying from $15.00 upwards 
a week, reaching $50.00 or $60.00 in some cases. 

Forewomen are employed in divisions of the stitch- 
ing room or in small departments in which the 
employees are mostly girls or women. 

The superintendents and foremen of a factory 
usually hold weekly meetings for the discussion of 
topics of mutual interest and helpfulness. 

Assistant superintendents and foremen receive 
salaries graded below the amounts given, according 
to the responsibility and service demanded. 

There is considerable change of foremen among 
shoe factories, more, probably, than of other officers 
or employees. In every shoe journal advertise- 
ments like the following are constantly appearing: 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 271 

" POSITION WANTED as foreman of sole leather 
room. Experience on welts, turns, and McKays, and 
can operate all machines. Also, expert on new economy- 
insole. Best of references. Address, , care of 

American Shoemaking." 

The Quality Man and the Quantity Man. Some 
factories have, in addition to superintendents and 
foremen, a person whose special duty is to examine 
all work being done in a department for its quality 
of workmanship and another person who observes 
all work for its quantity, so that each room is held 
up to the standard set by the factory both in grade 
and volume of product. These persons are practi- 
cally assistants to the foremen, yet responsible to 
the factory management only. With them, the fore- 
man can give his time more fully to training and 
supervising employees. On the other hand such a 
multiplication of supervisors, — superintendent, fore- 
man, and inspectors, — is likely to bring uncertainty 
as to authority and confusion of oversight. 

The quality and quantity men have about the 
same rank and pay as foremen. 

The Efficiency Engineer. Some large concerns 
employ a person skilled in efficiency methods. His 
work in the factory consists in studying methods 
and processes so that the best results may be ob- 
tained with the least expenditure of time, with the 
least wear of machinery, and with the most eco- 
nomical use of materials possible. When his duties 



272 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

deal with the operations of manufacture he is usually 
called an efficiency engineer. He is a specialist in 
work belonging more naturally to the' foreman, and 
attended to by the foreman or his assistant in the 
smaller establishments. 

The efficiency engineer must have a very accurate 
knowledge of the nature of machine operations, of 
the qualities of materials, of the factory schedule, of 
the mental and physical qualities of the operative, 
of the effect of monotony and routine, and of the 
value of encouragement and incentive for the 
worker. 

The Shoe Factory Chemist. There are numerous 
chemical companies which produce the materials 
used in tanning leathers and in finishing shoes. In 
recent years, however, some large shoe factories 
have drawn chemists from such establishments or 
from other sources to work steadily in the factory. 
The duties of such chemists are twofold : To examine 
all leathers purchased to see that they have been 
properly tanned and cared for, and to examine all 
finished materials, to see that they are of the right 
quality. A few factories have laboratories in which 
the chemist makes finishing materials from formulas 
which can be purchased or from his own or the 
factory formula. 

The salary of the shoe factory chemist, whose 
service is of high value in shoe manufacture, ranges 
from $20 or $25 a week upwards. 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 273 

Piece and Time Payment. Two-thirds, or about 
sixty-six per cent of the processes of boot and shoe 
manufacture, are paid for on a piece basis, usually 
at a fixed rate per dozen pairs. Such processes are 
those in which good work can be done at high rate 
of speed, and in which the possibility of increased 
earnings produces a larger volume of work from the 
shoe operator. On the other hand, where accuracy 
and care are required, as in the cutting room, and 
where work is of a routine nature, as in shipping, 
pay rests upon a time basis. 

The Best Paying Processes. Some of the best 
paying processes in the factory are, cutting, stitching, 
lasting, wiping in, welting, rounding, trimming and 
edge setting. The pay in these processes ranges 
from $20.00 to $40.00 or more per week. 

Wages and Hours of Labor in the Shoe Industry. 
Wages have been given in statistics at the ends of 
the chapters on factory departments, in each for the 
occupations in a given department. 

From the table which follows, on page 276, show- 
ing relative full-time hours per week, hourly earnings, 
and full-time weekly earnings, in the principal occu- 
pations from 1910 to 1 91 8, we may note the in- 
creases of 191 8 over the index numbers of 1913, or 
100 per cent, and compute average per cents of 
increase. It will be observed that the smaller in- 
creases for this five year war period were for heelers 



274 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

and heel trimmers among male employees, and for 
hand treers among female employees. These in- 
creases were only 13 per cent. At the same time 
Goodyear welters and rough rounders, both among 
the most important operators, were advanced only 
17 per cent. On the other hand, bed machine 
operators and turn lasters received an advance of 
43 per cent. The average per cent of increase in 
the forty occupations between 19 13 and 1918 was 
27^ per cent. 

This average increase of earnings in the industry 
may be looked upon as permanent. The higher 
wages paid, no doubt, in some shoe factories since 
19 1 8, in keeping with the general raising of wages 
in industry, are likely to be reduced somewhat, 
approaching the rates found in 191 8. 

To aid in making comparisons from year to year, 
relative or index numbers have been computed for 
the years 1910 to 1918 inclusive. These numbers 
are based on the averages showing in the general 
tables appearing at the ends of the chapters of this 
volume which treat of the departments of shoe 
manufacture. • It will be observed that in the period 
taken there was a universal relative decrease of 
6f per cent in full-time working hours per week, 
while relative earnings increased as shown above. 

Following is the index number table. In connec- 
tion with it is presented a table showing for each 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 275 

occupation the actual hours and earnings of em- 
ployees in comparison with full-time hours and earn- 
ings in a given week in 191 8. There appears to be a 
general falling off in actual figures, running as high 
as eight or ten per cent. This would not ; of course, 
be true of factories operating on full-time in busy 
seasons, and best represents the industry, perhaps, in 
an average time when production is easily keeping up 
with distribution. 



276 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table XXV. * Relative Full-Time Hours per Week, Hourly Earnings, 
and Full-Time Weekly Earnings, 1910 to 1918, in the Principal Occu- 
pations. 

(1913 = 100) 



Department, occupation, 
sex, and year 



3 o 

Pi 



+3 c 
=3 C 



Department, occupation 
sex, and year 



B-^ 






?2? 



CUTTING DEPARTMENT 

Cutters, vamp and whole 
shoe, hand, male: 

igio 

1911 

1912 

iQi3 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Cutters, vamp and whole 
shoe, machine, male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1013 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Skivers, upper, machine 
male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Skivers, upper, machine 
female: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

SOLE-LEATHER 
DEPARTMENT 

Cutters, outsole, male: 

1910 

1911 









103 


91 


94 


103 


89 


92 


IOI 


92 


92 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


99 


104 


103 


09 


107 


106 


95 


138 


132 


104 


93 


97 


103 


97 


IOO 


IOI 


97 


98 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


IOI 


99 


102 


IOI 


94 


138 


135 


IOO 


96 


97 


IOI 


98 


98 


IOO 


94 


95 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


99 


102 


IOI 


99 


in 


1 10 


93 


141 


133 


104 


84 


87 


104 


84 


88 


IOI 


92 


93 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


09 


99 


98 


99 


IOO 


99 


95 


128 


129 


102 


90 


93 


102 


92 


94 



SOLE -LEATHER 

department — Concluded 
1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Channelers, insole, and 
outsole, male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 



fitting or stitching 
department 
Tip stitchers, female: 

1911 

1912 

1913 

19*4 

1916 

1918 

Backstay, stitchers, fe 
male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Lining makers, female: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 



93 

100 

IOO 
IOO 

134 



94 

IOO 

IOO 
99 

126 



90 

IOO 



99 
122 



95 
95 

100 
99 

106 



94 

98 

97 

100 

IOO 

107 
127 



90 

IOO 

99 

103 

H9 



* Table 2. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 1007 
to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 

TABLE XXV. — Continued 



277 



Department, occupation, 
sex, and year 



^, 






0> 


>, 


£ 00 






'-".5 


J. fi 

3 t, 


il 


=2 S 




> E 




4) O. 
> en 


>■£■ 


5 3 


rt v 




.2 


« 


«* 



Department, occupation, 
sex, and year 



FITTING OR STITCHING 

department — Concluded 
Closers-on, female: 

1010 

igu 

1912 

1013 

1914 

1916 

igiS 

Topstitchers or under- 
trimmers, female: 

1910 

ion 

1912 

1913 

iQU 

1916 

1918 

Button fasteners, female: 

ign 

1912 

1913 

I9U 

igi6 

1918 

Buttonhole makers, fe- 
male: 

ign 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Vampers male: 

igio 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Vampers, female: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 



105 


92 


105 


93 


101 


gb 


1 00 


100 


00 


90 


08 


104 


96 


122 


104 


90 


101 


92 


IOI 


94 


1 00 


100 


99 


IOI 


00 


105 


95 


136 


103 


79 


IOI 


89 


100 


100 


g8 


99 


OS 


l°5 


96 


116 


103 


91 


IOI 


93 


100 


100 


99 


IOI 


9« 


110 


95 


135 


IOI 


92 


IOI 


08 


100 


96 


ICO 


100 


99 


98 


100 


104 


94 


138 


10 1 


97 


103 


97 


IOI 


94 


100 


100 


99 


99 


99 


103 


95 


127 



LASTING DEPARTMENT 

Assemblers, for pulling- 
over machine, male: 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Pullers-over, hand, male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Pullers-over, machine 
male: 

1910 

1911 

191 2 

1913 • 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Side lasters, hand, male: 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Sidelasters.machine.male 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Bed-machine operators 
male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Hand-method lasting-ma 
chine operators, male 

1910 

1911 

1912 



IOO 


IOI 


IOI 


88 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


IOI 


99 


106 


95 


146 


102 


87 


102 


94 


IOO 


95 


IOO 


IOO 


99 


105 


99 


106 


93 


141 


104 


91 


IOI 


93 


IOI 


89 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


IOI 


09 


107 


95 


146 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


102 


IOO 


103 


90 


145 


IOO 


IOO 


98 


106 


98 


103 


93 


145 


102 


94 


102 


97 


IOI 


91 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


97 


IOO 


i°5 


94 


152 


iot 


86 


103 


89 


IOI 


91 



IOO 

102 
106 

139 



95 
95 

100 

105 

104 

134 



95 
.94 
90 

IOO 
IOI 

106 



IOO 
IOI 

103 
139 

IOO 

103 

IOO 

134 



96 

99 

92 

IOO 

96 

105 

143 



278 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

TABLE XXV — Continued 



Department, occupation, 
sex, and year 



G^ 



6 w 
S c 
.J. "3 
3 53 



2^4 



Department, occupation, 
sex, and year 



S-m 


^j 










=1 is 




3 n 


-=1 C 


^ 0) 
J) D. 


%¥, 














"a5 O 


& 



■a j>( 



LASTING DEPARTMENT — 

Concluded 
Hand-method lasting-ma- 
chine operators, male: 

1913 

1914 

igi6 

1918 

Turn lasters, hand, male: 

1912 

1913 

1914 

igi6 

1918 

BOTTOMING DEPARTMENT 

Goodyear welters, male: 

1910 

ign 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Rough rounders, male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Goodyear stitchers, male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

McKay sewers, male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Heelers, male: 

1911 



102 
101 
101 
100 
100 
99 
95 

103 
102 

101 
100 
100 
99 
95 

102 

101 

101 

100 

99 

99 

95 

103 
102 
101 
100 
100 
99 
95 



100 
101 
99 
119 

94 
97 
94 

100 
104 
109 
132 

9i 
93 
90 

100 
108 
113 

141 



95 
100 
103 
108 
125 

93 
94 
90 
100 
107 
112 
133 



BOTTOMING DEPARTMENT 

— Concluded 
Heelers, male : 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918. 

Heel trimmers or shavers 
male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914- • 

1916 

1918 

Heel breasters, male: 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Edge trimmers, male: 

1910 

ign 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Edge setters, male: 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Heel scourers, male: 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

Heel burnishers, male: 

1911 

1912 



102 


80 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


95 


99 


102 


95 


118 


102 


02 


102 


93 


IOI 


94 


IOO 


IOO 


99 


98 


99 


IOO 


95 


119 


IOI 


93 


IOI 


94 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


98 


99 


103 


95 


132 


102 


93 


IOI 


95 


IOI 


93 


IOO 


IOO 


99 


97 


99 


103 


95 


133 


102 


90 


102 


92 


IOI 


92 


IOO 


IOO 


IOO 


98 


99 


IOO 


95 


127 


99 


93 


IOI 


92 


IOO 


IOO 


99 


97 


99 


109 


95 


139 


IOO 


97 


IOI 


92 



91 

IOO 

95 
101 
"3 



93 

99 
54 

100 
98 
99 

"3 

94 
95 
100 
97 
102 
126 

95 
96 
93 
100 
97 
102 
126 

92 
93 
92 

100 
98 
99 

121 

93 
93 
100 
97 
108 
132 

97 
93 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 

TABLE XXV — Concluded 



279 



Department, occupation, 
sex, and year 



Mo 

= 6 



— z 



"■0 S 






Department, occupation 
sex, and year 







R-* 


j>. 










3 ■- 


Ji M 






OJ O. 


> H 




x; ca 


*5 


"u 


« j= 


« 


K 





^ c 
+33 

3 & 



BOTTOMING DEPARTMENT 

— Concluded 
Heel burnishers, male: 

1013 

1014 

igi6 

1918 

Buffers, male: 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 

FINISHING DEPARTMENT 

Treers or ironers, hand, 
male: 
1910 



100 
100 
100 
95 

101 
101 
100 
100 
99 
95 



FINISHING DEPARTMENT 

— Concluded 
Treers or ironers, hand 
male: 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1916 

rgi8 

Treers or ironers, hand 
female: 

1910 

1911 

igi2 

1913 

1914 

1916 

1918 



IOI 


95 


101 


94 


100 


100 


100 


100 


99 


l°5 


95 


145 


10(1 


91 


IOfi 


92 


100 


97 


100 


100 


96 


no 


Q7 


119 


98 


147 



95 
95 
100 
99 
105 
137 



96 
97 
97 
100 
106 
116 
"3 



280 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



Table XXVI. * Average Full-Time Hours, Hours Actually Worked, Full- 
time Weekly Earnings, and Amounts Actually Earned During One 
Week, igi8. 

[This table does not include data from 7 establishments having biweekly pay rolls.] 



Occupation and sex 



"I 






S°3 

bfl 0.0 
ct) m - 



5 Sis 

2»S 



<* 



»5 



cutting department 

Cutters, vamp and whole shoe, hand, 
male: 

Cutters, vamp and whole shoe, ma- 
chine, male 

Skivers, upper, machine, male 

Skivers, upper, machine, female. . . . 

sole -leather department 

Cutters, outsole, male 

Channelers, insole and outsole, male 

FITTING OR STITCHING DEPARTMENT 

Tip stitchers, female 

Backstay stitchers, female 

Lining makers, female 

Closers-on, female 

Top stitchers or undertrimmers, fe- 
male 

Button fasteners, female 

Buttonhole makers, female 

Eyeleters, female 

Vampers, male 

Vampers, female 

LASTING DEPARTMENT 

Assemblers, for pulling-over ma- 
chine, male 

Pullers-over, hand, male 

Pullers-over, machine, male 

Side lasters, hand, male 

Side lasters, machine, male 

Bed-machine operators, male 

Hand-method lasting-machine oper- 
ators, male 

Turn lasters, hand, male 

Turn sewers, male 

BOTTOMING DEPARTMENT 

Goodyear welters, male 

Rough rounders, male 

Goodyear stitchers, male 

McKay sewers, male 



63 

23 

116 



73 
116 



119 
118 
126 



129 
61 



87 
81 
126 



95 

35 

117 

41 

54 



2,263 

1,169 

96 

668 



410 
259 



419 

535 

1,097 

344 

i,3I5 

99 

137 

216 

565 

1,406 



697 

344 



386 

284 
1,265 



39° 
729 



455 
275 
658 
196 



52. 1 

50.9 

5i-7 



52.1 
52.5 



Si.S 
5i-8 
5i-4 
52.0 

51.6 
52.7 
52.2 
51-7 
51.4 
5i-7 



52.5 
Si- 7 
52.6 
5i-8 
52.2 
52.1 

52.8 
53-8 
53-6 



52.2 
52.4 
52.3 
S2.8 



46.6 



46.4 
46.8 



49.8 
49.6 



46.7 
47.0 
46 



47-3 
48.4 
48.5 



47-7 
50.6 
51.2 



47.1 
48.4 
48.7 



$25.16 

23.S6 
21.55 
13.82 



14.98 
13.58 
12.44 
12.30 

14-55 
12.05 
13-67 
13-58 
22.81 
16.24 



20.92 
24.62 
26.75 
22.63 
24-39 
25-97 

25.38 
24.37 
26.82 



32.35 
32.06 
27.56 
23.58 



$22.46 

21.12 
19.50 
12.51 



20.30 
21.10 



13-51 
12.31 
11. 17 
11.02 

13.42 
11.00 
12.26 
12.68 
21-45 
14.38 



18.81 
22.85 
24-57 

21.15 

22.99 

24.37 

23.09 
22.90 

25.63 



28.84 
28.39 
25.69 
21.32 



* Table 4. — Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry: IQ07 
to iqi8. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 

Table XXVI — Concluded 



28l 



Occupation and sex 



£3 







1 1 J* 






DM- 

E ° "2 


m 


a> m 




3 1 E 


2 o.§ 

O £ C 


— °E 
3, =3 


e -a 


2 2 d 


III 








>z 5 2 


^ 


404 


52.7 


49.1 


26.36 


24S 


54-1 


52 


2 


25.61 


342 


52.6 


48 


8 


28.07 


210 


52.8 


48 


7 


21.81 


981 


52.4 


48 


3 


28.51 


8ga 


52.6 


48 





27.68 


453 


52.6 


48 


4 


22.98 


3U 


52.7 


48 


S 


22.72 


463 


52.6 


48 


5 


22.28 


i,i43 


52.3 


49.1 


21.20 


205 


53-3 


48.7 


12.21 


21S 


52. 5 


49-5 


19-36 


22,394 


52.7 


48.9 


17.23 


iS,i87 


51.S 


47-3 


11.79 



3 Ji « 1> 

2 £ >.* 



Heelers, male 

Heelers, wood, male 

Heel trimmers, or shavers, male. 

Heel breasters, male 

Edge trimmers, male 

Edge setters, male 

Heel scourers, male 

Heel burnishers, male 

Buffers, male 

FINISHING DEPARTMENT 

Treers or ironers, hand, male. . . 
Treers or ironers, hand, female.. 
Treers or ironers, machine, male 

ALL DEPARTMENTS 

Other employees, male 

Other employees, female 



130 
18 
122 
107 
131 
132 
122 
123 
124 



in 

29 
23 



136 

135 



24.65 
24.56 
26.25 
20.19 
26.32 
25-75 
21.23 
21.00 
20.64 



20.07 
n.33 
18.20 



16.24 
10.81 



The accompanying graphic chart * is based upon 
the percentages of figures gathered from eighty- 
three representative establishments throughout the 
country. 

In some establishments the regular pay-roll period 
covers two weeks. Of this twelve-day working 
period the factories whose number of employees and 
pay roll were the basis of the preceding chart, were 
in operation 11.4 days. This was in the proportion 
of ninety-five per cent of the working days of the 
year ending in February, 1914, or 48.4 weeks, leaving 
the equivalent of an average idle period of 3.6 weeks. 

1 Wages and. Hours of Labor, 1007 to 1914 — Boots and 
Shoes. U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



282 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



It will be observed by the chart that the number 
of employees does not vary greatly throughout the 
year from the normal of one hundred per cent, but 
that the pay roll and earnings do vary considerably, 



APR. MAY 



JUNE JUIY 



SEPT OCT 



CENT 







1 


1 


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1 


I 


I 


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EMPLOYEES' 




















3TAL RAY ROLL 


















BIWEEKLY EARNIN6S PER EMPLOYEE 

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' CENT 
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APR MAY JUNE JULY 



SEPT OCT NO" DEC 



Variation in Number of Employees, Total Pay Rolls, and 
Biweekly Earnings per Employee 

according to seasons, being highest in March, August, 
December, the latter part of January, and February, 
and lowest in April, July, September, October, and 
the early part of January. In the busy season 
individual earnings are at a maximum; in the dull 
season, with fewer hours, they are at a minimum. 

Sex and Age Distribution of Wage Earners in the 
United States by Leading Industries: 1909. Table 
XXV, the latest of its kind now. available, shows, for 
the forty-three leading industries, the number and 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 283 

per cent of distribution, by age and sex, of wage 
earners as reported for December 15, or the nearest 
representative day. It does not include salaried 
persons. As a means of judging the true importance 
of the several industries as employers of labor, the 
average number employed for the entire year is also 
given in each case, this number, in the case of 
seasonal industries, being much smaller than the 
number on the representative day. The per cent of 
distribution for all industries combined, based on the 
average number employed, is also presented. 

In all the industries combined in this table, 
seventy-eight per cent of the average number of 
wage earners were males sixteen years of age or over, 
19.5 per cent females sixteen years of age or over, 
and 2.5 per cent children under the age of sixteen. 

In all industries combined 78.5 per cent of the 
average number of wage earners in 1914 were males 
sixteen years of age or over, 19.7 per cent females 
sixteen years of age or over, and 1.7 per cent children 
under sixteen years of age. 



284 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 











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EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 



285 



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286 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The industries for which the largest proportions 
of males sixteen years of age or over are shown are 
those in which the work is of a nature requiring 
considerable physical strength or a high degree of 
skill. 

The proportion of women and children, naturally, 
is larger in those industries in which the processes 
require dexterity rather than strength. 

The importance of the shoe industry as a field of 
employment, in comparison with the other staple 
industries, may be seen by this table. 

The average number of wage earners employed 
in the industry during the year is 93.7 per cent of 
the total number employed on the day taken by 
the Census Department as properly representative. 
Of those sixteen years of age or over, 62.6 per 
cent are males, and 33.3 per cent are females. 
The percentage under sixteen is 4.1 of the whole 
number. 

The Monotony of Shoemaking. Like those of 
many other kinds of manufacture the machine 
processes of shoemaking are monotonous. The hand 
processes are in general of a lighter and less wearing 
nature, and are not so distinctly characterized by 
monotony. Operating an automatic machine, how- 
ever, upon which materials or parts of shoes must 
be placed and controlled in an unvarying time period, 
is depressing and wearing for the operator. In a 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 



287 





Employees' Club House, George E. Keith Company, 
Brockton, Mass. 



288 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

sense he becomes a part of the machine until he may 
almost seem to have little mental or physical activity 
aside from it. 

There are several possible offsets to monotony in 
shoe manufacture. One is an incentive to speed, 
which, while in itself a wearing element for the 
workman, has a speeding up effect upon him in the 
case of payment by piece. He works faster, and 
in many cases accomplishes a full day's work in 
less than a full day's time, thus gaining for himself 
some hours of the working day to spend outdoors 
or at home. It is a common thing to enter the 
gang room of a shoe factory, for instance, towards 
night and find some machines idle because the 
operators upon them have performed their work on 
the lots of shoes passing through the room on that 
day. 

A second offset is found in the advantage to the 
operator of learning to run more than one machine, 
so that at times he may be transferred from one to 
another. 

It is a relief and often a pleasure to the mind of 
the worker to have to handle leathers and other shoe 
materials of high grade and finish. 

Another means of lessening monotony lies in the 
operator's being able to care for his own machine, 
to understand its parts, or to suggest improvement 
upon it. This kind of ability, which is much sought 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 289 

after in the shoe factory, often leads to promotion 
and to work upon more important machines. 

Quotation upon Efforts in Some Factories to 
Lessen Monotony. The following quotation indi- 




" Ideal Home," Library and Clubrooms, Endicott, Johnson and 
Company, Endicott, N. Y. 



cates the tendency of the present time to ameliorate 
the effects of monotony: 

" In some German factories the routine of the day is 
broken by a recess in the morning and in the afternoon. 
In a western factory, which makes supplies for the shoe 
trade, there is a morning and afternoon recess for em- 
ployees. Lunch is served during the recess. Some of the 



2Q0 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

employees work as waitresses. In a number of shoe fac- 
tories there are now rest rooms for women. 

" In some high-class American manufacturing estab- 
lishments, the grounds about the factories are made 
attractive. When an employee looks out of the window, 
he sees a cheerful prospect. This breaks the monotony 
of his task. It is possible that the American shoe factory 
system requires too steadfast an application of the worker 
to his machine. The enthusiasm with which shoemakers 
demand factory legislation, particularly short working 
hours, is a sign that this is so. Perhaps shoemakers 
would be more steady and more efficient if they had ten 
or fifteen minutes of recess in the morning and in the 
afternoon. The idea may seem radical, perhaps pre- 
posterous; but it's pretty certain that something will 
be done the next few years to break up the monotony of 
the task of shoemaking." x 

Social Service in the Shoe Factory. Some large 
factories conducted under modern conditions take 
measures for the occupational and social welfare of 
their employees. They provide classes for training, 
in some features, at least, of the work of the factory; 
separate rooms for rest and recreation, dancing, and 
social clubs for male and female employees ; libraries 
equipped with books and magazines relating to shoe 
manufacture, and with general literature; restau- 
rants conducted on a co-operative basis, or at low 
rates, so that employees may afford to patronize 
them; medical attendance and equipment; and some- 
times elaborate parks and playgrounds. 

1 American Shoemaking, Boston, October 18, 1913. 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 291 

Quotation from a Government Study of Social 
Service. The best summary of social service, or 
welfare work ; as it has long been called, in the shoe 
industry, is to be found in the report upon Em- 



Men's Recreation Room, Thomas G. Plant Company, 
Boston, Mass. 

ployers' Welfare Work, published by the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics at Washington, 1913, as follows: 

" The Shoe Co., 

has done much to improve working conditions for its 
5,000 employees. The huge factory is built in the form 
of a hollow square, so that all the workrooms are well 
lighted. On the top floor, where the shoe leather is cut, 
the roof has saw-tooth skylights to increase the light. 



2Q2 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The ventilation throughout the building is admirable, and 
every effort is made to keep down dust. The lava- 
tories are very sanitary and clean. Individual lockers 
of perforated iron are placed about in the workrooms near 
the machines, and are turned over to employees on their 
making a small deposit — enough to cover the cost of 
the key. There is a check-room for umbrellas and wet 
garments. Separate elevators are installed to transport 
the women employees to the upper floors. The company 
has a lunch counter for the employees, where food is 
sold at cost. Employees who bring their lunches eat 
them in the workrooms. 

" Apart from good workroom conditions the company 
conducts recreation work — the name it gives the usual 
welfare work. The ground around the building has been 
converted into a noonday-rest park for the employees, 
with a beautiful, trim, green lawn and flowers. There 
is besides a roof garden covering over half of the roof 
space. Part of this is reserved for women and part for 
men, with separate stairways leading to each section. 
A dance hall for women open at noon and on special 
occasions in the evening, a pool room and bowling alleys 
for men, open every evening after working hours until 
ten o'clock give the much-needed amusement. The men 
pay a small fee for the use of the tables and the alleys. 
A handsomely furnished reading room, with attractive 
ferns and flowers from the company's greenhouse, has 
been opened to the employees. There is a branch station 
of the City Public Library here, besides books owned by 
the company and numerous weekly and monthly 
periodicals. 

" A woman physician, constantly in attendance, has 
the medical care of the employees under her supervision. 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 



293 



There are rest rooms and an emergency hospital, with a 
nurse regularly employed in the building. Twice a week 
an oculist spends the forenoon at the factory and may 
be consulted free by the employees. He fits them with 
glasses at very reduced prices. 




Dancing Hall, Thomas G. Plant Company, Boston, Mass. 



" The company, with the aid of employees' dues, 
maintains the Relief Fund Department. Out of this 
fund, sick, accident, and death benefits are paid. There 
is at present over $5,000 in the treasury. The dues are 
ten cents each week for adults and five cents for em- 
ployees under twenty years of age, and they are de- 
ducted from wages by the paymaster's department. In 
case of sickness or accident the members receive $7 and 



2Q4 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

$3.50 a week. No member can draw benefits longer 
than seven weeks in one year. Benefits do not become 
due until the member has been incapacitated one week, 
except in case of severe injury. At death $100 or $50 is 
paid the beneficiaries of the deceased, according to the 
amount of the weekly dues. A medical examiner is em- 
ployed to report upon the condition of disabled members 
and to decide upon the members' claims for benefits. 
The administration of the relief fund is entirely in the 
hands of the company, and all the receipts of the fund are 
held by the company in trust for the relief department." 

General Sanitary Conditions Observed in Boot and 
Shoe Factories. 1 The general sanitary conditions, 
dangers, and injurious processes in shoe factories 
have been clearly presented in the report of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Health for 1912, upon 
the Hygiene of the Boot and Shoe Industry in 
Massachusetts. As this State has always been the 
center of the industry in this country, and as its 
factories, some six hundred in number, are typical 
of the American shoe factories, the facts presented 
in this report may be considered fairly typical of the 
industry at the present time. The following is taken 
from the report: 

" The construction, location and interior conditions of 
the shoe factories of Massachusetts vary so widely, even 
in the same community, that it is difficult to formulate 

1 Hygiene of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts, 
State Board of Health, 1912. 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 



295 



general statements which would be applicable to all of 
them. Not a few of these factories are located in small 
country towns and are operated by employees descended 
from generations of shoemakers. These factories are 
generally isolated and, because of the absence of neighbor- 
ing structures, quite well lighted. On the other hand, in 




Factory Hospital, United Shoe Machinery Corporation, 
Beverly, Mass. 



the cities, where all available space is utilized, the build- 
ings are at times crowded together, impairing the lighting 
conditions of the workrooms. It should be remembered, 
however, that, unlike the textile industry, the operatives 
in shoe factories work at machines or at benches placed 
along the sides of the rooms near the windows. The 
only exception to this may be found in the stitching 



296 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



rooms, where the operatives work in all parts of the 
room. This room, however, was as a rule found well 
lighted in all establishments visited. 

" It is to be noted that the modern buildings con- 
structed for the shoe industry have been so placed that 
neighboring structures cannot shut out natural illumina- 




Wash Room, United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Beverly, Mass. 

tion. This feature of construction has proved a valuable 
asset to those who have constructed these buildings. 
Note has already been made of the use of electricity as 
an artificial illuminant. 

" The laws of Massachusetts require that all factories 
be kept clean and well ventilated, and these laws are well 
observed. 

" The odor of leather is inseparable from the art of 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 297 

making shoes, as is the odor of wool and of cotton in the 
textile industry. 

" One of the most vexing problems that has arisen in 
the inspection of shoe factories has been the maintenance 
of proper toilet facilities. This question, by no means 
common to the shoe industry, can only be met through 
repeated inspections and the education of the manu- 
facturer. It is not that the manufacturer is not willing 
or does not desire to maintain proper toilet facilities, 
but he is oftentimes careless and leaves this part of the 
work to others who fail in their duty. A decided im- 
provement in these conditions has, however, been noted." 

Conditions in 483 Factories, as to Light, Ventilation, 
and Water-closets: 

Light: 

Excellent 30 

Good 441 

Moderately bad 2 

Distinctly bad 10 

483 
Ventilation : 

Excellent 7 

Good ........ 468 

Moderately bad 3 

Distinctly bad 5 

483 
Water-closets: 

Excellent 6 

Good . . 415 

Moderately bad 7 

Distinctly bad 55 

483 

For further information on health conditions in 
shoe manufacture the reader is referred to the re- 



298 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



port from which the preceding quotation has been 
made. In that report he will find an exhaustive 
discussion, with numerous diagrams, of the injurious 
features of the occupation. There is danger in 
operating most machines, which can, however, be 




-■■■■, ■■ 



IXZa 



Spirit and Loyalty. On Labor Day, in a pouring rain, 15,000 
Endicott Johnson workers dedicate the " Square Deal Arches." 
These arches are of granite, erected at Johnson City and Endi- 
cott, costing $32,000 and financed entirely by the workers 



avoided with due care on the part of the operator; 
there is danger, also, from the fumes of naphtha, 
from cement used in the stitching room and making 
room; and while dust removers are in general use, 
under the compulsion of state legislation, there is 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 299 

considerable menace to the health from dust which 
is produced by nearly all processes of work upon 
the bottoms of shoes, such as edge trimming, bottom 
scouring, buffing, and bottom finishing. 

The Employment of Handicapped Men in the Shoe 
Industry. Many of the minor processes of shoe 
manufacture and a considerable number of the major 
processes can be performed by handicapped men. 
The industry offers numerous opportunities for such 
workers to earn a fair living or even high wages and 
salaries. Its 1400 factories are established in all 
sections of the country, and each factory employs 
hundreds or thousands of operatives. The place, 
moreover, of the industry is among the great staples 
whose products are in ever increasing demand. Such 
industries must have workers, and must, if necessary, 
modify their processes to the abilities and condition 
of the workers available from time to time. 

Shoe manufacturers are ready to employ men who 
have disabilities. If such men have formerly been 
employed in the industry they can enter it again 
the more easily ; if they have not done .shoe work, 
they can learn some part of it in a comparatively 
brief time. The employer in the great shoe centers 
especially welcomed the returned soldier, who has 
on the whole good mental ability. It has been 
necessary in these places to hire considerable alien 
help, which has only an economic interest in the 



3 oo THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

service it performs. Furthermore, the employment 
of handicapped men in the shoe factory will lessen 
the increasing danger of an over-employment of 
women in the harder and more wearing divisions of 
the occupation. 

The view of the manufacturer is well expressed 
in the following statement by the superintendent of 
one of the great factories in the vicinity of Boston, 
when a recent investigation of opportunities for the 
handicapped was being made by the author in this 
factory: 

Work here depends on the man more than on freedom 
from handicap. A person willing to take hold and learn 
may do something with almost any handicap. An opera- 
tive here who loses several fingers or a thumb may keep 
his place on almost any job. So one blind in one eye 
may still work; those deaf and dumb may work here 
successfully. We have this morning hired four inex- 
perienced men who are both deaf and dumb. They will 
be put upon machines and trained as shoe workers. 

Of specific disabilities it is necessary here to speak 
but briefly. Loss of legs will not incapacitate a 
man in the industry. He may work at many opera- 
tions sitting. Plans are now being considered to 
construct seats and benches for some of the heavy 
shoe machines at which the operator now stands. 
The great problem will be to enable the man who 
has lost one or both hands or arms to operate shoe 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 301 

machines or do hand processes in the factory. A 
man of general strength and health who has almost 
any injury except in hands and arms may become 
a shoe operator. Manufacturers and inventors of 
shoe machinery are now considering methods of 
adapting shoe machines to handicapped operators by 
means of mechanical devices, air pressure, and elec- 
trical devices. Where now a foot pressure of eighty 
or one hundred pounds is used on the treadle of a 
heavy machine, by possible and contemplated im- 
provements this pressure may be reduced ninety 
per cent, or the machine may even be operated by 
touching an electric button. Mr. J. B. Hadaway, 
consulting engineer for the United Shoe Machinery 
Corporation, made to the writer the following wisely 
conservative statement: 

I think it possible in time to so arrange the machines 
that the difficulties which would be experienced by 
operators with crippled limbs will be partially overcome. 

This is the statement of a leading authority in 
a great corporation which manufactures and leases 
shoe machinery for the bulk of the industry in this 
country today. 

The conservative point of view upon the employ- 
ment of handicapped men in the shoe industry may 
properly be presented here, that we may the better 
understand the industry and more intelligently esti- 



302 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

mate its opportunities for workers who have dis- 
abilities of any kind. Shoe manufacture is highly 
specialized and its operations are mainly performed 
on standard machines. The best paying operations 
are upon machines that call for the full strength of 
a person standing while at work, and require two 
good hands and two legs, healthy lungs, and strong 
chest muscles. There is also a great deal of moving 
about at most jobs, to do one's own work and pass 
it to the next operator, and quickness of movement 
and speed of machine are necessary for profitable 
earnings for the individual worker and for a satis- 
factory output in a factory department. It is just 
as necessary for a piece worker to work fast as for 
a day worker, since he must keep up to the rate of 
speed required by workers associated with him. 
All shoe parts being worked upon pass through one 
room after another on scheduled time, and no opera- 
tive can be allowed to fall behind others. The shoe 
factory as a whole is no more efficient than the 
weakest link in the chain of workers. 

As most operations are paid by the piece, the 
handicapped worker might receive lower wages, 
since no factory would increase its rate. It might 
become necessary, then, in part, to employ handi- 
capped persons upon the less skilled operations now 
performed by women and girls, or boys, at the wages 
paid to these workers. This would displace such 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 303 

workers in a degree, even if shoe manufacturers were 
willing to make the change; but manufacturers 
prefer women, girls, and boys for most of the work 
which they now do on account of their skill of hand, 
quickness, or steady application to their work. 
Women, in particular, during the recent war, were 
employed in increasing numbers in the shoe factory 
upon the processes previously performed by men. 
In general, the output of these women proved greater 
than that of men formerly in the same processes, and 
a return to the earlier relative numbers of the sexes 
in the industry was not to be expected. 

Mr. Sidney W. Winslow, Vice-president of the 
United Shoe Machinery Corporation, made the 
following statement: 

Ninety per cent of our machinery calls for the use of 
both hands in holding the shoe up to the machinery in 
such a position that the machinery may operate upon the 
shoe step by step along the contour of the shoe, which 
means that the operator has to turn the shoe by hand and 
needs both hands to do so. This would, of course, pre- 
vent most of the hand cripples from being able to use 
90 per cent of our machinery. 

At most of our machines the operators stand while 
running them. Our Experimental Department has been 
going through our machines thoroughly with the idea of 
arranging that the operator may sit and operate these 
machines, having in mind the possibility of woman labor. 
This, of course, would make it possible for the leg cripples 
to run these machines. 



304 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

These machines represent investments of millions 
of dollars and priceless patents. In some cases there 
are thirty or forty patents on a single machine. 
Changes in the machines, therefore, will come very 
slowly, and generally only in the line of the per- 
fection of a process. 

Certain conclusions in regard to the problem of 
the employment of handicapped workers in the shoe 
industry are here presented: 

i. Opportunities exist to a considerable degree in the 
major and to a large degree in the minor factory processes 
and in shoe repairing. 

2 . In the present scarcity of intelligent labor, employers 
will welcome the handicapped worker who desires to enter 
the shoe factory. 

3. Leg handicap will not incapacitate a person for 
shoe work. The man with one artificial leg may stand 
at a machine; one with both legs gone or artificial may 
work sitting, especially after projected changes in 
machinery. 

4. The main problem is one of hands and arms. Most 
of the processes in shoe manufacture require two good 
hands. Passing from early hand shoemaking to present 
machine shoemaking only adds intricacy to processes. 

5. Defective sight and serious bodily injury constitute 
decided handicaps. 

6. Minor injuries and the loss of several fingers are 
practically negligible handicaps. 

7. Shoe machinery is standardized. The main proc- 
esses are fixed and demand workers who are vigorous, 
active, and capable of endurance. 



EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 305 

8. Shoe machinery is based upon thousands of costly 
patents and represents millions of dollars in investments. 
Changes for any one particular class of workers are likely 
to come slowly. 

9. Handicapped men should be well trained and placed 
on shoe processes where they will be 100 per cent efficient 
as compared to other operators. They can expect to 
remain in the shoe factory permanently only on this basis. 



CHAPTER XIV 
TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Schools and Courses for Shoemaking. In several 
large shoe centers private schools for shoe workers 
have .been established. The work upon which 
operators learn usually consists of low grade shoes 
made by the school for factories, on a contract basis, 
or upon shoes manufactured from materials of 
second quality, bought at a low price from supply 
factories or from shoe factories. Persons wishing 
to learn a process of shoemaking are taken on 
rather as helpers at first in that process, giving 
their time and paying a fixed tuition, such as thirty 
or sixty or eighty dollars, without special regard to 
the time required for learning. The time spent in 
learning, however, may run from one to seven or 
eight months. Operators run the same machines, 
though sometimes second hand, as are used in the 
shoe factory, and generally become capable of enter- 
ing factories as fairly efficient workers. 

A few towns and cities, in co-operation with shoe 
and leather manufacturers, have established courses 
in shoe and leather subjects in the public school 
system. These courses, however, are mainly at- 

3°6 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 307 

tended by persons already working in factories and 
leather houses and seeking additional training to 
increase their efficiency and earning capacity. 

The instructors are superintendents and experts 
in the trade who have been given special training 
for teaching. The establishment of such courses 
marks a great advance in the shoe and leather 
industries. 

Superintendents and foremen sometimes conduct 
classes at the factory for employees under them. 

Quotation from a Report upon Industrial Education 
in Shoe Manufacture. The report of the Committee 
on Industrial Education of the National Boot and 
Shoe Manufacturers' Association, at the annual con- 
vention of the association in New York on January 
13, 1915, contains the following: 

" The subject of industrial education in the shoe manu- 
facturing industry, which was referred to the under- 
signed Committee, is in our opinion a matter of great 
importance to our trade — ■ so important indeed that, 
disturbed by the prevailing business conditions, in 
common with the other manufacturers in our country, 
we have been unable to give to it the careful investigation 
that it deserves. This report, therefore, may be con- 
sidered as merely one of progress, designed to lead to a 
broader investigation of the subject later. 

" That there is need of higher efficiency, based on a 
broader knowledge of, and a greater enthusiasm for, the 
work in which they are engaged on the part of the em- 



3 o8 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

ployees in our American shoe factories, and especially 
the young beginners in the industry, is sufficiently ob- 
vious to require no argument. 

" This same need has been recognized in many other 
manufacturing industries, not only in this country, but in 
many foreign countries, and in the case of several of the 
latter notable progress has been made during the last 
ten or fifteen years. 

" We therefore find that not only is industrial educa- 
tion of various grades being generally carried out in the 
older countries, like England, France, Germany, Belgium, 
Holland, Switzerland, and Denmark, but that even the 
great Orient countries, just now awakening from their 
centuries of conservatism, and incidentally opening up 
encouraging vistas of future trade opportunities for our 
United States manufacturers — China, Japan, and 
India- — are also seriously taking up this question of 
higher efficiency in industry. Canada, one of the most 
progressive of the world's countries, has established a 
National Commission for the investigation of this ques- 
tion, and its report will be awaited with much interest 
by the friends of modern education. 

" The more active campaign along this line in the 
United States has extended over the last ten years, and 
already has brought forth some valuable results. At the 
present time the National Society for the Promotion of 
Industrial Education is making an exhaustive national 
survey of the field, somewhat similar to that undertaken 
by Canada; and naturally the conclusions that may be 
reached by this organization will have a far-reaching 
influence on the future of industrial education. 

" In so far as our American shoe industry is concerned 
we find that some excellent preliminary work already has 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 309 

been accomplished by one of our leading organizations, 
the New England Shoe and Leather Association. 

" This Association had the merits of the German and 
English system of continuation, or part-time, industrial 
instruction brought to its attention by representatives of 
the Boston School Committee, and arranged to co-operate 
with that Committee in the establishment in 19 10 of 
what we understand was the first shoe and leather con- 
tinuation school in the United States. 

" The first class brought together numbered thirty-nine 
pupils, representing twenty-nine different concerns in 
various branches of the allied shoe and leather trade, 
mainly boys and young men between the ages of fifteen 
and twenty, employed in offices, warehouses, and manu- 
facturing departments, etc., of the shoe factories, 
tanneries, and other establishments. Since that time, 
there have been graduated from this school more than 
two hundred pupils, each of whom has received an 
official certificate of his technical ability, and in this way 
there has been laid a splendid foundation for the larger 
scheme of industrial education that is now being con- 
sidered by the Association. 

" The working method of this Boston Shoe and 
Leather Continuation School Class, briefly, is the holding 
of a series of two-hour sessions on two afternoons a week, 
covering a period of twelve weeks. 

" The School Committee provides the classroom and 
the instructor, who, of course, has specialized in this 
particular branch of industry; and the Association and 
the trade it represents co-operates by furnishing com- 
petent lecturers, and other experts, who from time to 
time give the pupils formal or informal talks on the 
subjects in which they are experts. 



3 io THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

" Incidentally various trips of inspection are made to 
nearby shoe factories, tanneries, and other plants, the 
result being that the boys not only acquire a broad idea 
of the fundamentals of tanning and shoemaking, to- 
gether with its ramifications of foreign-trade extension, 
advertising and general efficiency, but, what perhaps is 
as important as anything, they graduate with an interest 
and enthusiasm for their chosen vocation that will mean 
more than half the battle for them in their future life. 

" This lack of real interest on the part of so many 
young beginners in our industry, which springs largely 
from the existing narrow vision of their work that lies 
before them, in any one department of it, is one of the 
greatest handicaps to both the youths and to the manu- 
facturer who employs them; and if the continuation 
school did nothing more than inspire them with a real 
interest in what they are doing day by day for a liveli- 
hood, it would well repay all that it costs. 

" There is no charge for tuition in the Boston Shoe 
and Leather Continuation School, except that non-resi- 
dent pupils are charged a nominal fee, so that the only 
expense entailed is the four hours or so per week 
of the pupils' time that the employer donates to the 
good cause. 

" In conclusion your committee would strongly 
recommend: 

" First. — The establishment of shoe and leather 
continuation schools, similar to the Boston School, in 
every shoe manufacturing city and town in the United 
States that is in a position to support one, in this way 
possibly laying a foundation for a broader scheme of 
industrial education in the trade. 

" Second. — That the National Boot and Shoe Manu- 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 311 

facturers' Association establish a Standing Committee 
on Industrial Education to make a careful survey of the 
question and report to each annual meeting; and 

" Third. — That the Association co-operate in every 
feasible way with the National Society for the Promotion 
of Industrial Education." 

The existence of war conditions has prevented 
a country-wide adoption of the recommendations of 
this report, but herewith are presented accounts of 
the most notable developments in training for the 
shoe industry. 

The Shoe and Leather Course of the Boston Con- 
tinuation School. Following is a statement of the 
Shoe and Leather Course of the Boston Continuation 
School, recently prepared for the author by Mr. 
Owen D. Evans, formerly Principal of the school: 

In 1910 with the co-operation of the New England 
Shoe and Leather Association the Boston Continuation 
School started a voluntary short unit course on the shoe 
and leather industry. Since that time the course has 
been given once or twice each winter. To date a total 
of over 300 men in the shoe and leather industry have 
successfully completed the work. The men who take 
the course range from eighteen to twenty-five years of 
age; most of them are high school or college graduates. 
Their work lies on the distributing side of the industry 
rather than in production. The sessions are two hours 
each, twice a week during working hours for twelve 
weeks. A small tuition fee is charged for persons not 
residents of Boston. Usually the employer pays the 



3i2 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

tuition fee. The work consists of lectures, demonstra- 
tions, class discussions, varied by frequent trips of investi- 
gation and inspection to tanneries, stock rooms and 
factories. 

The detail of the typical twelve weeks' course is in- 
dicated by the following schedule for 19 18, in which 
lectures are given by the instructor unless otherwise 
specified: 

1. Brief historical account of leather making. Trade 
centers in the United States. Sources of hides and skins. 
Methods of curing. 

2. Classification of hides and skins according to age, 
sources, injuries, and " take-off." 

3. Discussion of hide reports in trade papers to bring 
out above points. Merchandising of hides and skins. 
Chemical and anatomical structure of skin as applied to 
unhairing, fleshing, and liming. 

4. Trip to New England Dressed Meat and Wool Co., 
Somerville. Killing of cattle and sheep. Care of hides 
in hide basement. Scouring and painting of sheepskins. 
Wool pulling and making of pickled sheepskins. 

5. General outline of tanning operations from start 
to finish. Layout of tannery. 

6. Chemical demonstration of action of tanning ma- 
terials on hide-substance. Details of vegetable tanning 
and study of vegetable tanning materials. 

7. Mineral tannages, chrome, alum, and combina- 
tions. Oil tannage. Details and processes. 

8. Trip to the Beggs and Cobb plant at Winchester. 
An afternoon spent in seeing what has been taught. 
Principally chrome work. 

9. Finishing operations. Patent leather. Prepara- 
tion of varnishes. 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 313 

10. Trip to American Hide and Leather Co., Woburn 
Highlands, including a brief visit to the Beggs and Cobb 
patent leather shop. 

n. Lecture, Tannage of goatskins, also manufacture 
of sole leather. 

12. Trip to Benz Kid Co., Lynn. 

13. Talk on South America by Mr. H. G. Brock, 
Special Agent of the United States Bureau of Foreign 
and Domestic Commerce. 

14. Tannage of Sheepskins and Calfskins, also a half- 
hour talk on the Far East by Mr. Clarence E. Bosworth, 
Special Agent of the United States Bureau of Foreign 
and Domestic Commerce. 

15. Talk on Sheepskins and exhibition of stock by 
Mr. L. Y. Stiles at the Sheepskin Department of the 
A. C. Lawrence Co. 

16. Brief outline of history of shoemaking in the United 
States. Development of machinery and the modern 
factory. Steps in manufacture up to stitching room. 

17. Leather remnants, examination of stock at the 
C. G. Flynn Co., and talk by Mr. Battey on uses of 
various kinds of remnants. 

18. Illustrated lecture on history of shoes by Mr. Wm. 

F. Hall of the Publicity Department of the United Shoe 
Machinery Corporation. 

19. Talk and exhibition of calfskins at Calfskin De- 
partment of the A. C. Lawrence Co. Talks on "Tanning," 
by Mr. L. F. Peabody; " Selling the Product," by Mr. 

G. N. Bankhardt. 

20. Trip to Stetson Shoe Factory, South Weymouth. 
High grade men's welts. 

21. Talk on Shoe Selling and the Manufacture of 



3 i4 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Rubber Heels by Mr. William Noll of the Foster 
Rubber Co. 

22. Shoe Findings, Talk and Exhibit by Mr. S. R. 
Nichols of the Frank W. Whitcher Co. 

23. Trip to the Thomas G. Plant Co., Jamaica Plain. 
Women's welts, McKay's, and turns. 

24. Brief summary of shoe manufacture by the in- 
structor. Remarks by Secretary Anderson of the N. E. 
Shoe and Leather Association. Presentation of certifi- 
cates by Principal Owen D. Evans of the Boston Con- 
tinuation School. 

The Boston Continuation School conducts classes 
in several local shoe factories, which are of the nature 
of part time education. In these courses boys and 
girls from fourteen to sixteen years of age are taught 
subjects related to shoe manufacture, and American- 
ization, citizenship, and hygiene. The teaching of 
factory processes is at present left to the factory 
itself. 

The Lynn Independent Industrial Shoemaking 
School. The circular of this new school gives the 
following information: 

This is a school conducted jointly by the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts and the City of Lynn, under 
the provisions of Chapter 174, of the Special Acts 
of 1 91 6, and aims: 

First — To prepare the pupils for the shoe industry by 
methods impossible to use in other than a properly 
equipped vocational school. 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 315 

Second — To so instruct the boys and girls of Lynn as 
to enable them to acquire a skill in and technical knowl- 
edge of the shoe industry which will enable them to enter 
that industry advantageously and rise to the highest posi- 
tions of responsibility. 

Third — While receiving instruction in the technical 
knowledge and necessary manipulative skill, the pupils are 
also to be taught the duties of citizenship; their obliga- 
tions to the City, State and Nation. 

Fourth — To meet the pressing needs of the shoe in- 
dustry both from a standpoint of the shoe workers and 
manufacturer. 

Subject to the statutory requirements the school will 
be open to residents of Lynn over 14 years of age, with 
a Grammar School education who are able to satisfy 
those in charge of the school of their ability to under- 
take a four-year course. Membership will be limited to 
those who are willing to bind themselves so far as they 
are allowed by the laws of the Commonwealth to take the 
entire course if they are admitted. 

Pupils may enter the school at any time during the 
school year and will be retained if, within a reasonable 
time, they show ability to profit by the training. 

Promotion from one phase of the work to another will 
depend wholly upon the individual ability of the pupil. 

There will be no promotion by classes and probably no 
fixed time for promotion, but the general schedule of 
studies found herein will be adhered to as closely as 
possible. 

Interested candidates should address themselves to 
Michael J. Tracey, Director, 235 Euclid Avenue, Lynn, 
Telephone 5562. 

This school offers a four years' course for boys and a 



316 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

two years' course for girls. Each school year is one of 
forty-eight weeks, five days a week, seven hours a day. 
At least 50% of the time will be spent by the pupils in 
actual work in the school shops. 

The school will be divided into the following depart- 
ments: 

Cutting Making and Finishing 

Fitting Lasting 

Sole Leather Packing and Office 

The course of instruction is intended to give the 
students a thorough knowledge of the shoe industry and 
so far as possible to fit them for positions as shoe factory 
executives. 

It is not thought that it can replace practical ex- 
perience in the shoe trade. This will probably always 
be necessary for one desiring to become an expert work- 
man on any particular part. The school does not intend 
to engage in the work of turning out merely expert 
cutters, lasters, edgemakers, etc., but does hope to give 
its graduates a broad training upon the fundamental prin- 
ciples of shoemaking which, coupled with a manipula- 
tive training and supplemented by experience, will enable 
them to understand and direct the technique of the 
making of shoes in all departments. 

COURSE OF STUDY — BOYS 

4 years — 48 weeks each year 

5 days a week — 7 hours a day 

Upper Leather Cutting Department 
Twenty-jour Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
shop in actual work: 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 317 

Trimming cutting, including lace stays, top facing, back 

stays, tongues and tips, knife and block cuttings .... 2 weeks 

Linings 2 weeks 

Outsides, hand and machine 8 weeks 

Stock sorting 4 weeks 

Pattern drafting, pattern making, and last measure- 
ments 6 weeks 

Skiving 2 weeks 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work arising during the 
course as applied to the cutting of shoes; such as the 
inspection and choice of skins and their use in different 
types of shoes, developing the ability to measure skins by 
the eye, the relation of the cutting department to the other 
departments and the necessity of having the shoes exactly 
cut. The possibility of economizing in the making of 
shoes by "a properly conducted cutting department, the im- 
portance of reading the tags carefully and what mistakes 
may lead to ; the importance of keeping a smooth surface 
on the cutting boards and how to obtain the same, the 
care of the cutting knife and the right kind of a " grind," 
the selection of the right parts to be used for trimmings, 
the selection of fabrics for linings and the importance 
of the lining to the making of a shoe, the selection of 
fabrics to be used in the outsides, instructions in the 
" feel " of leather, tanning and currying of hides. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on- — -General Vocational Subjects: 
Designing shoes. Applied Science, as chemistry of tan- 
ning, etc. Applied Arithmetic. Industrial and Com- 
mercial Geography. Industrial History. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citizenship, Hygiene, Recreation. 



3i8 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 




The Class of New Americans, all Endicott Johnson workers, 
studying that they may become citizens 



Upper Leather Fitting Department 
Forty-eight Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school shop 
in actual work. 

Lining making and stamping 4 weeks 

Closing and staying 2 weeks 

Perforating, cementing and pressing 4 weeks 

Back stays, tip stitching, fancy stitching and binding, 

single needle work 6 weeks 

Foxings 4 weeks 

Top stitching, closing on, turning and blacking 6 weeks 

Button hole operating, finishing, button sewing, 

eyeleting 8 weeks 

Vamping 8 weeks 

Barring and toe closing 2 weeks 

Table Work ■ — including lining in, marking buttons and 
button holes, lacing and buttoning, blacking edges, 
inspecting, tying up and packing, and simple machine 

repairs 4 weeks 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 319 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work arising during this 
course ; such as, instructions as to the importance of good 
fitting in the production of shoes, of using the correct 
needles and threads on different parts of shoes and grades 
of work, instruction as to the proper allowances for seams 
on the different operations, the relation of pattern draft- 
ing and making to the fitting department, the possibility 
of designing new shoes by simply changing some of the 
parts in the fitting room, the different machines to be used 
on the different parts and how to secure the best results 
from them, also care for the same, the relation of the 
fitting of the shoe to the lasting department, cutting 
department. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Vocational Subjects: 
Applied English. Applied Mathematics. Applied Me- 
chanics. Applied Science. Drawings and Design. In- 
dustrial and Commercial Geography. Industrial History. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citizenship, Hygiene, Recreation. 

Sole Leather Department 
Twenty-jour Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school shop 
in actual Work. 

Rounding and cutting soles 2 weeks 

Cutting inner soles 2 weeks 

Channeling 4 weeks 

Rolling and splitting 1 week 

Pasting and trimming taps and spring heels 1 week 



320 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Turning channels i week 

Molding soles i week 

Making inner soles 6 weeks 

Bench work 2 weeks 

Sorting soles for size, weight and quality 4 weeks 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work arising during the 
course; kinds of hides which may be made into sole 
leather, the parts of hides which may be used as soles, 
inner soles, counters, top lifts, taps, etc. Effect of water 
and heat upon leather, the different tannages of sole 
leather with especial reference to the oak, hemlock, union 
and chrome tannages. 

Which shoes should carry a heavy sole, light sole. The 
process of tempering leather. Where branded leather 
may be used. How to practice economy in the cutting 
of leather and how to best utilize the different parts. The 
importance of careful sorting as to sizes and grades. 
Stains and how to remove them. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Vocational Subjects: 
Applied English. Applied Mathematics. Applied Me- 
chanics. Applied Science. Industrial and Commercial 
Geography. Industrial History. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citizenship, Hygiene, Recreation. 

Lasting Department 
Twenty-four Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school shop 
in actual work. 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 321 

Welts and McKays. 

Welts ; Assembling, hand pulling and hand lasting .... 8 weeks 

Pulling over machine 4 weeks 

C. H. M. machine 4 weeks 

Bed machine 2 weeks 

McKays ; Pulling over machine 2 weeks 

C. H. M. machine 4 weeks 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work; such as the 
relation of lasting to the wearing of the shoe, with the 
especial reference to the possibility of the shoe losing its 
shape by wear. The importance of distinguishing be- 
tween " yanking " and " pulling " when lasting leather 
shoes. The importance of reading tags carefully. Why 
lasters should know the difference between the different 
kinds of upper leathers. The necessity of careful work 
in guarding the " lines " when lasting shoes. 

Lasting and its relation to the other departments. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Vocational Subjects: 
Specialized work on topics from Industrial Economics. 
Industrial History. Industrial and Commercial Geog- 
raphy. Industrial English. Industrial Design. Rela- 
tion of shop, office and customers. Relations of em- 
ployers and employees. Shoe literature. Factory Organ- 
ization. Department arrangements and management. 
Placing machinery. Accounting in shoe manufacturing. 
Salesmanship. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citizenship, Hygiene, Recreation, 
Business Methods and Forms. 



322 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Making and Finishing Departments 

Forty-eight Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school shop 
in actual work. 

Welting 6 weeks 

Rounding 4 weeks 

Goodyear stitching 6 weeks 

Bottom filling, welt beating, inseam trimming, tack 
pulling, and setting, leveling heel seat, nailing and 

fudge wheeling 6 weeks 

McKay sewing and leveling 4 weeks 

Nailing 3 weeks 

Shaving 4 weeks 

Scouring, breasting and slugging 2 weeks 

Edge trimming and jointing 5 weeks 

Edge blacking and setting 4 weeks 

Buffing and Naumkeaging 2 weeks 

Rolling and finishing bottoms and heels 2 weeks 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work; such as the 
difference between the welt and McKay process and the 
especial value of each. The importance of welting in 
reference to the fit and wear of the shoe. The importance 
of Goodyear and McKay stitching. The importance of 
a well finished heel and bottom. The importance of the 
heel and its application. Some of the results of badly 
fitted heels. What edge trimming does to the appearance 
of the shoe. The importance of having edges properly 
" set." 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Vocational Subjects : 
— Specialized work on topics from Industrial Eco- 
nomics — Industrial History. Industrial and Com- 
mercial Geography. Industrial English. Industrial 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 323 

Design. Relation of shop, office and customers. Rela- 
tions of employers and employees. Shoe literature. 
Factory, organization. Departmental arrangements and 
management. Placing machinery. Accounting in shoe 
manufacturing. Salesmanship. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citizenship, Hygiene, Recreation, 
Business Methods and Forms. 

Packing and Shipping Department 

Tiventy-four Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school shop 
in actual work. 

Cleaning and ironing 2 weeks 

Tip fixing 2 weeks 

Lacing, buttoning, stamping, lining 2 weeks 

Inspecting, shipping and routing 2 weeks 

General Review 16 weeks 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work; such as the cost 
of careless work in the packing room as compared with 
other departments. The artistic side of tip fixing and 
other repair work. Instructions as to the large shoe 
centers of this and other countries. The names of the 
large shoe manufacturers of the nation and their location. 
The large leather centers and names of the manufacturers. 
What labor costs include. 

Office work including a thorough course in the day 
sheet system. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Vocational Subjects: 



324 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

— Specialized work on topics from Industrial Eco- 
nomics — Industrial History. Industrial and Com- 
mercial Geography. Industrial English. Industrial 
Design. Relation of shop, office and customers. Rela- 
tions of employers and employees. Shoe literature. 
Factory organization. Departmental arrangements and 
management. Placing machinery. Accounting in shoe 
manufacturing. Salesmanship. Law of Sales. Super- 
vision and Management. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citizenship, Hygiene, Recreation, 
Business Methods and Forms. 

COURSE OF STUDY — GIRLS 

2 years — 48 weeks each year 
5 days a week — 7 hours a day 

Upper Leather Fitting Department 

Forty-eight Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school shop 
in actual work. 

Lining making and stamping 4 weeks 

Closing and staying 2 weeks 

Perforating, cementing and pressing 4 weeks 

Back stays, tip stitching, fancy stitching and binding, 

single needle work 6 weeks 

Foxings 4 weeks 

Top stitching, closing on, turning and blacking 6 weeks 

Button hole operating, finishing, button sewing, 

eyeleting : . . . 8 weeks 

Vamping 8 weeks 

Barring and toe closing 2 weeks 

Table work, including lining in, marking buttons and 
button holes, lacing and buttoning, blacking edges, 
inspecting, tying up and packing, and simple machine 

repairs 4 weeks 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 325 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work arising during 
this course; such as instruction as to the importance of 
good fitting in the production of shoes, of using correct 
needles and threads on different parts of shoes and grades 
of work; instructions as to the proper allowances for 
seams on the different operations; the relation of pattern 
drafting and making to the fitting department, the possi- 
bility of designing new shoes by simply changing some 
of the parts in the fitting room, the different machines 
to be used on the different parts and how to secure the 
best results from them, also care for the same, the rela- 
tion of the fitting of the shoe to the lasting department, 
cutting department. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Vocational Subjects: 
Applied English. Applied Mathematics. Applied Me- 
chanics. Applied Science. Drawing and Design. In- 
dustrial and Commercial Geography, Industrial History. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citzenship, Hygiene, Recreation. 

Fitting, Packing, and Office Departments 

Forty-eight Weeks 

Fifty per cent of the time to be spent in the school shop 
in actual work. 

Drafting and making patterns 4 weeks 

Skiving 4 weeks 

Cleaning and ironing 2 weeks 

Tip fixing 2 weeks 

Lacing, buttoning, stamping, lining in 2 weeks 



326 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Inspecting, shipping and routing 2 weeks 

General Review 8 weeks 

Office Work — including the actual work of conducting 
the work of the office, keeping of the books, and a 
full course of instruction in the sheet system 24 weeks 

Twenty per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on directly related technical work arising during the 
course; such as the importance of correct measurements 
when measuring for patterns, the allowances to be made 
on the different patterns, the relation of the pattern de- 
partments to the other departments. The cost of careless 
work in the packing room as compared with the other 
departments. The artistic side of tip fixing and other 
repair work. Instructions as to the large shoe manu- 
facturers of the nation and their location. The large 
leather centers and names of the manufacturers. How to 
determine costs. What overhead expense is. What 
labor costs include. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Vocational Subjects: 
— Specialized work on topics from Industrial Eco- 
nomics — Industrial History. Industrial and Com- 
mercial Geography. Industrial English. Industrial 
Design. Relation of shop, office and customers. Rela- 
tions of employers and employees. Shoe literature. 
Factory organization. Departmental arrangements and 
management. Placing machinery. Accounting in shoe 
manufacturing. Salesmanship. Law of Sales. Super- 
vision and Management. 

Fifteen per cent of the time to be spent in the school 
room on — General Non-Vocational Subjects: 
English, Mathematics, Citizenship, Hygiene, Recreation, 
Business Methods and Forms. 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 327 

The Plan of the United States Training Service. 1 
The Training Service of the United States Depart- 
ment of Labor, after a study of several months in 
shoe manufacturing establishments, has recently pre- 
sented an elaborate program for the training of em- 
ployees in the factory itself. This program out- 
lines alternative methods for setting up instruction in 
the industry, adaptable to the different needs and 
facilities of shoe factories. The following excerpts 
are made from this bulletin: 

Purpose of Training Program 

Conditions in Shoe Industry. According to 
present conditions, factory training should deal with 
improving the ability of workmen already employed, 
the training of new help to meet the needs of factory 
changes and openings brought about through labor 
turnover. Conditions in the shoe industry warrant 
training in all these directions. The shoe trade con- 
sists of a number of highly specialized branches of 
such a type that the workmen, besides being machine 
operators, are called upon to do considerable hand 
work of a kind that tends to characterize the various 
branches of the industry as separate trades in them- 
selves. Such a variety of machines is used and so 
many operations are carried on that the training 
itself can be conducted quite inexpensively. 

1 Training in the Shoe Industry. Training Bulletin No. 21. 
United States Department of Labor, Washington, D. C, iqiq. 



328 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The success of a teaching plan in shoemaking 
necessitates that it be outlined with the same care 
and good judgment that is so evident in the various 
manufacturing processes of this industry. Training 
factory help by " any old plan " in " any old way " 
has been a failure principally because it had neither 
aim nor method. 

Testing New Applicants. All new applicants for 
factory positions, whether they claim previous ex- 
perience or not, should be thoroughly tested and 
tried out before assigning them to the different 
branches of work in the factory. This testing can 
best be handled in the training room where the appli- 
cants can be tried according to the standards and 
requirements of the department in which they are 
to work. 

Training New Help. New employees needing 
training should also be sent to the training room for 
instruction in the branch of work for which they 
have been employed. The training should be given 
upon production work up to the factory standards 
and requirements using regular factory equipment 
and materials. As soon as the learner has acquired 
the desired degree of efficiency he should be trans- 
ferred to the proper department. 

Upgrading Employees. The shoe trades are es- 
pecially suited for upgrading. This may take the 
form of improving the ability of workers who are 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 329 

below standard, or it may have to do with training 
for promotion. The opportunities offered in this 
particular field make this an important feature in 
any training program. 

Types of Training Suitable. In making any plans 
for training in a shoe factory, the instructor in 
charge should first make a careful and complete 
survey of his factory seeking out such information 
as will be of most aid to him in organizing and 
developing a plan. The types of operations per- 
formed in the shoe factory make it practical to train 
employees both in the separate training department 
and upon the factory floor. The greater part of the 
instruction, however, should be given in the separate 
training department. Modern equipment for this 
purpose should be installed. This can usually be 
transferred to the training room from the production 
floor or additional equipment purchased. When 
this equipment has served its purpose, it can be ab- 
sorbed in the regular production work without inter- 
fering with any factory schedule. 

Training According to Factory Requirements. The 
field to be covered by the training department will, 
of course, be determined by the needs of the factory. 
This should be carefully worked out by the instructor 
in charge, whether his plan has to do with the test- 
ing of the new applicants, the training of the un- 
skilled, or the improving of those below standard. 



330 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The method of training should be entirely in accord 
with factory requirements and conducted according 
to shop standards. This necessitates that the train- 
ing be upon production. There may, however, be 
some cases where scrap material or a suitable sub- 
stitute can be used to advantage in breaking in new 
operators. If it is found advisable to do this, in 
order to accomplish the purpose of training, the in- 
structor should give it his personal supervision in 
order that it be not carried to extreme. Best re- 
sults, however, are obtained where those being 
trained are immediately assigned to production work. 
Related Instruction. Connected with the process 
of making shoes, additional instruction in related 
technical matter is needed to give the workman a 
more complete knowledge of what he is doing. 
What and how much related instruction may be 
given should be determined by the director of in- 
struction, depending on the needs of the factory. 
Some of this technical instruction can very well be 
given while the workman is being trained on the 
operations to which he is assigned. Other cases may 
necessitate this instruction being given individually 
or possibly to a group and conducted apart from the 
operation itself. Among those points on which such 
instruction can be given are: Matters relating to 
the understanding of the company's policies; safety 
and sanitary regulations; shop routine; knowledge 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 331 

of time tickets and other records which the work- 
man uses on his job. It may be necessary also to 
carry on instruction in matters relating to leather 
or the details connected with the construction and 
operation of machines. This, however, should be 
determined by each instructor, according to the needs 
in his particular factory. 

Departmental Relations. In arranging his program 
for training the instructor in charge should make 
sure at the outset that the plan has the proper sup- 
port of the management and that its purpose is well 
understood by all executives, particularly the factor}' 
foremen, superintendents, or other officials who must 
necessarily come in contact with its operation. The 
relations of the training department to the factory 
proper, also to the employment department and the 
welfare departments, should be clearly defined from 
the beginning. 

Cooperation of Employees. Organized methods of 
training in the factories may sometimes excite un- 
favorable comment on the part of various employees. 
Where such occurs the director of training should 
use tact and judgment in dealing with the matter, 
endeavoring to forestall difficulty. It has always 
been found that when the real purpose of training has 
been made clear to all concerned opposition entirely 
disappears. 

To assist in establishing real harmony, it may be 



332 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

advisable that there be incorporated in the program 
a working committee to co-operate with the instruc- 
tor in charge when needed, in properly arranging 
details or systematizing matters to carry out more 
effectively the purpose of the instruction plan in 
general. 

The Instruction Staff 

Requirements High for Director. The success of 
the training will depend very largely upon the in- 
structor who has charge of it. This necessitates 
that considerable care be taken by the management 
in selecting a man to handle the job; and in turn 
that this man exercise every effort properly to qualify 
himself and measure up to the requirements, in order 
that best results may be obtained. 

Qualifications. Experience has proved that system- 
atic training in a shoe factory requires several in- 
structors besides the director, depending upon the 
size of the factory and the number of people to be 
instructed. As a rule, no one instructor is able to 
perform all operations equally well and therefore 
is not qualified to give instruction in all branches. 
The training staff, however, should be headed by 
a man capable of bearing the responsibility of prop- 
erly selecting the instructors best suited for the 
various branches. Knowledge of the job is quite 
essential in this form of training. The instructor 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 333 

in charge should likewise be able to impart this 
knowledge to others. He must necessarily have a 
strong and agreeable personality, an understanding 
of human nature, and be able to lead and handle 
men. Equally important is his ability to analyze a 
job and determine what elements require teaching 
and how this teaching can best be performed. He 
must also be able to lay out in teachable form a 
plan of procedure to be followed while training 
workmen. 

Trade Knowledge Essential for Instructors. Ex- 
perience has proved that best results are obtained 
where the instructors are thorough mechanics. 
Ability to teach can very often be developed through 
special instruction either in evening schools or in 
special classes conducted by the director. Where 
this plan is not followed, and instruction is attempted 
by one possessing teaching ability but lacking in 
trade knowledge, unsatisfactory results will follow 
and the success of the training be handicapped. The 
instructor should be able to furnish the learner the 
best information. This can come only from one 
who is entirely familiar with its processes. 

How to Proceed with Instruction 

Instructor's Guide. Unless the instruction be 
given in some organized teaching order it will be 
difficult for the learner to grasp and apply it effec- 



334 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

tively. This order of procedure is the instructor's 
guide; it should direct him how to proceed both 
when training new help and improving those already 
on the job. It should be arranged in such form as 
to accomplish the aim desired with the least effort 
on the part of the learner, and be interspersed with 
explanations and demonstrations. How this fits 
shoe manufacturing requirements can best be illus- 
trated by referring to edge trimming, a typical 
operation. 

Four Steps in Procedure. As in all other cases, 
the procedure to follow in giving this instruction 
should be divided into four steps: preparation, pre- 
sentation, application, and supervision. This form, 
can also be the guide for the instructor to follow 
in laying out his plan for teaching other operations. 

Preparation. The preparation in this particuar 
operation should have to do with adjusting the 
machine and the tools for the work to be done to 
make sure that they are in perfect running condition 
and to produce the correct shape of edge. In this 
it is quite essential that the instructor makes sure 
that the cutter is properly ground to produce a 
clean-cut edge. 

This is very necessary, as there is nothing more 
discouraging to a learner than to have to " hang 
around " while his instructor is making adjustments 
and fumbling with the machine, losing both time 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 335 

and patience. He should see that the sole to be 
trimmed is properly " mellowed," as good instruction 
can not be given upon a shoe which is not in proper 
condition. The rack of shoes should be placed in 
a convenient position so as not to interfere with the 
progress of the instruction. When this preparation 
step is not carefully planned the effect on the learner 
is quite serious, as it often leads him to misjudge 
the instructor and the impression sometimes sticks 
with him a long time. 

Value of Illustrations. The instructor should have 
at hand a shoe with an edge correctly trimmed, and 
another shoe showing the condition of the sole before 
the operation is performed. By referring to these 
a brief explanation can be given, acquainting the 
learner with what is to be done. During this prep- 
aration the instructor might deem it advisable very 
briefly to question the learner regarding his previous 
experience in machine operating and so obtain in- 
formation which may assist him in steps that follow. 

Presentation. In the presentation, the instruction 
proper is taken up and the learner is taught how to 
perform the machine operation. During this the in- 
structor should proceed in logical order from the first 
detail of the operation to the finish, explaining and 
illustrating each point that needs instruction, in order 
that the learner may thoroughly understand what is 
being done as well as how it is being done. The 



336 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

instructor should recognize the value of questions 
and illustrations in this work. He should likewise 
be on his guard lest he do too much talking. It is 
the tendency of some instructors to tell about the 
operation or the machine on which it is done rather 
than to instruct. The instructor should show the 
operator how he should stand at his machine and 
how to hold the shoe. As the machine runs at high 
speed he must caution the learner as he explains 
and demonstrates where to begin the operation, and 
how he places the edge of the sole against the cutter, 
drawing the shoe toward him with an even and steady 
movement, while at the same time observing care- 
fully that the trimmed outline conforms neatly to 
the shape of the last. In trimming the toe additional 
explanation will be needed in demonstrating how to 
hold the shoe as it is guided around the cutter. 
While giving this instruction the instructor should 
see that the learner is following him, pausing here 
and there to find out if the learner understands. In 
manipulating the shoe during this trimming operation 
the instructor should proceed slowly, so that the 
learner may be able closely to follow the demon- 
stration. 

Repeating the Demonstration. By questions the 
instructor should determine whether or not the 
learner is able to perform the operation as instructed. 
It will be necessary to repeat the operation on a 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 337 

second pair, making more clear those special points 
which, through questions, are found not to be clearly 
in the mind of the learner, again calling attention to 
the care that must be exercised in giving an even 
and continuous drawing motion to the shoe as it is 
passed under the cutting tool. The care to be exer- 
cised in obtaining a true edge must be made clear to 
the learner. The number of times this operation 
should be performed before the learner is able to 
apply the instruction will be determined by whether 
or not the learner has acquired the desired informa- 
tion. Carefully planned questions should be worked 
out by the instructor to test his understanding of the 
operation. This operation may seem very simple to 
the instructor, but he must use judgment and 
patience in presenting it to one unfamiliar with it. 

Application. When the instructor is satisfied 
that the learner has grasped the various points the 
learner should be assigned to the machine to perform 
the operation himself. In this step it will be neces- 
sary that the instructor assist the learner as he first 
applies the instruction. Doubt or fear on the 
learner's part may cause him to hesitate in his first 
attempt, but this can be readily overcome by en- 
couragement from the instructor. The instructor 
will find an excellent opportunity to use his best 
teaching efforts, as it will be necessary for him to 
assist the learner from time to time and even correct 
him during this procedure. 



338 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Helpful Suggestions. By examining each edge as 
completed he will be able to give the operator the 
benefit of constructive criticism and offer suggestions 
for improvement on the next shoe. In this step 
much judgment will be required on the part of the 
instructor and he must exercise self-control, as quite 
often there may be a considerable tax on his patience. 

The operator should not be hurried while applying 
the instruction, as that only tends to confuse him, 
and the value of the instruction is weakened. It is 
also well at this point to caution the instructor not 
to do too much " butting in," as interruptions of this 
sort distract the learner and indicate lack of teaching 
ability. These matters, however, the instructor 
should have in mind from the beginning and he 
should be prepared for emergencies. The instructor 
should anticipate the difficulties which a learner 
usually encounters. 

Supervision. Supervision of the learner on edge 
trimming is absolutely necessary, for without it the 
instruction will soon lose its effect, and both spoiled 
work and poor working habits will result. The 
supervision should consist in carefully guiding the 
learner, correcting him from time to time as he 
continues to apply the instruction, in order to bring 
his work up to the highest standard. This necessi- 
tates that the instructor always be on the job and aid 
the learner when needed. Careful observation of 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 339 

the operator as he works and an examination of the 
shoes as trimmed will show the progress of the 
learner while in training. The best type of record 
for this purpose has been found to be of the chart 
form which follows : 




2. 3 4-. & 

Production Curve in Learning 



What Record Shows. As shown, this records the 
progress of the learner during the time of his train- 
ing. It shows how many pairs of shoes have been 
trimmed each hour and indicates when he has 
reached that stage of perfection which warrants his 
transfer to the factory proper. On this same chart 
is listed such spoilage as may be caused by the 
learner. This can be filed with the learner's appli- 
cation card after his transfer, as it furnishes evi- 
dence as to his employment and training. 

Follow Up after Instruction. It is quite essential 



340 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

after transfer to the factory that the learner be 
followed up for a short period to find out how he is 
progressing under production conditions. A graphic 
record will be of much value, as it shows the 
learner's progress compared with that of the training 
period. It should be followed up long enough to 
make sure that the operator is progressing as desired. 
Should there be an indication that he is not making 
good, he should be returned to the factory for 
further training. 

In obtaining correct information for this record, 
the co-operation of the foreman will be needed. 

Sole Leather Department 

How to Proceed. In planning instruction covering 
the operations in the sole-leather department the in- 
structor should proceed as previously outlined, listing 
the various steps in the operations in the proper 
order, noting those upon which special training is 
needed. In laying out these plans he should con- 
sider the best methods of handling the materials 
being worked upon, as well as the precautions to be 
observed by the learner in performing the operations. 
The machines to be used for instruction purposes 
should be in good running order and the tools so 
sharpened and adjusted as to give the best results. 
Before beginning the instruction the instructor 
should test out the machine, making several pieces 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 341 

to be sure that everything is in proper order. These 
pieces can be used as samples of work, in illustrating 
the different points in the demonstrations that follow. 

Elementary Branches — Channeling. Many of 
the operations in this department do not require a 
great deal of instruction planning and can be readily 
taught by a brief explanation or demonstration upon 
the job itself. The cutting of channels, however, 
may present a few difficult features from the training 
standpoint, as considerable instruction on these 
machines will be required, as well as close super- 
vision of the learner after he has been assigned to 
apply the instruction. To illustrate how these 
machines should be studied in working out a plan 
for instruction there are herewith outlined procedures 
covering instruction on the Universal channeler welt 
machine and the Goodyear lip-turning machine. 

In preparing the Universal channeler welt machine 
for instruction the instructor should first make such 
adjustments as are necessary properly to perform 
the operation. He should see that the machine 
cutting tool is in good condition and should try out 
the machine to make sure that it will turn out work 
up to the standards of the department. He should 
have on hand, arranged in best working order, the 
proper materials on which the instruction is to be 
given. By referring to the parts made as above 
mentioned, a brief explanation can be given as to 



342 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

the purpose of this operation. Before beginning 
this instruction the instructor should see that the 
learner is in a position where he can both see the 
operation being performed and hear the explanation 
given. 

Demonstration. The instructor should then pro- 
ceed with the operation, explaining clearly as he 
demonstrates how the work should be fed into the 
machine with the right hand, and then grasped with 
the left hand, allowing the right to be free to operate 
the handle which changes the margin. In order 
that the learner may understand why it is necessary 
to make such a change the instructor should explain 
each step clearly as he performs the operation, show- 
ing the learner how and when to operate the handle 
as the work is fed into the machine. The reason 
for varying the margin to allow for the differences 
in thickness of the upper leather should be made 
clear. When working upon extremely pointed toes 
the instructor should explain that special precautions 
should be observed advising that two operators are 
here necessary to get best results. It should be 
clearly explained that in making the first operation, 
treadle No. 3 should be used in going around the toe, 
and that this causes the outside knife to be raised 
while the toe is being turned. The release of the 
treadle brings the knife again in operation, finishing 
the sole. The same procedure of instruction should 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 343 

be followed in explaining how the toe is finished 
by performing the second operation on the Goodyear 
channeler fitted with knife No. 6. 

Preparatory to instruction on the Goodyear lip- 
turning machine the instructor should make sure 
that the machine is properly adjusted for the work 
and that the inner soles to be worked upon are 
tempered before the operation. In demonstrating 
how to operate the machine the instructor should see 
to it that the learner is in such a position that he 
can both hear the instruction and clearly see the 
demonstration. The parts to be worked upon should 
be properly arranged on the right side of the machine 
so that they can be conveniently fed into the 
machine. The left side should be clear to receive the 
work after the operation is finished. No explanation 
should be given as to the oiling or cleaning of the 
machine or the making of adjustments until 
demonstration of the operation is complete. During 
this demonstration the instructor should illustrate 
how judgment of the operator is required in assisting 
the machine when working upon soft inner soles. 
There may be a tendency toward grinding which 
might interfere with or widen the margin. As the 
operator is applying the instruction the instructor 
should be close at hand to assist him in difficulties 
that may arise where the grain of the inner sole 
changes from hard to soft, or vice versa, or where 



344 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

it becomes necessary to adjust the table for the 
thickness of the inner sole in order that they may be 
properly fed. The operator should be cautioned 
that whenever adjustments are made the belt should 
run on the loose pulley. 

Outline for Instructor's Use. The following 
processes in the sole-leather department are listed 
to assist the instructor in charge in arranging a 
suitable plan for training for this particular 
department. 

Sole Leather Department 

An analysis of operations in manufacturing order. 

Fitting sole stock, 
i. Tempering leather. 

(a) Preparation of liquid. 

(b) Distribution of liquid. 

(c) Covering up. 

(d) Proper length of time. 

Note. — The tempering of leather demands special attention 
not because of its difficulty, but because of the important bearing 
it has upon future operations. 

2. Rolling. 

(a) Nature of the sole. 

(b) Condition as to temper. 

(c) Regulation of pressure. 

3. Splitting. 

(a) Condition as to temper. 

(b) Weight of the sole. 

(c) Weight of edge desired. 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 345 

4. Sole extending (if used). 

(a) Beveling sole and reinforcement. 

(b) Attaching reinforcement. 

5. Rounding. 

(a) Quality of sole. 

(b) Sizes to be cut. 

(c) Adjustment of knife. 

(d) Location of patterns. 

6. Channeling. (McKay outer soles). 

(a) Condition as to temper. 

(b) Difference between single and tap sole. 

(c) Adjustment of groove knife. 

(d) Adjustment of channel knife. 

Note. — This is by far the most important operation connected 
with the fitting of McKay outer soles. By the adjustment of the 
channel knife the operator determines whether or not the shoe 
to which the sole is attached will be capable of withstanding 
the amount of wear which the quality of leather warrants. The 
adjustment of the groove knife determines just where the 
McKay stitcher is supposed to lay his row of stitching. No 
attempt should be made to teach channeling until the operator 
has been grounded in other parts of sole leather work. 

7. Feather edging and shank reducing. 

8. Skiving taps and spring heels. 

9. Cementing and trimming taps and spring heels„ 

10. Turning channels. 

(a) Condition of leather as to temper. 

(b) Laying back the channel. 

11. Stamping. 

12. Molding. 

(a) Condition of leather as to temper. 

(b) Proper size of molds. 

(c) Break at the shank. 

13. Shank piece sticking (if any). 

14. Sizing, assembling, and tying up. 



346 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Inner Soles, Welts 
i. Rounding. 

2. Channeling. 

(a) Condition as to temper. 

(b) Depth of channel cut. 

(c) Width of shoulder, 
(i) In shank. 

(2) On ball. 

(3) On toe. 

(d) Sharpening of knife. 

(e) Adjustment of knife. 

(/) Weight of between substance. 

3. Making of Gem inner soles. 

(a) Tempering. 

(b) Weight of materials. 

(c) Cutting and turning lip. 

(d) Cementing cloth. 

(e) Getting cloth into base of the rib. 
(/) Width of shoulder. 

(1) In shank. 

(2) At ball. 

(3) Around toe. 

4. Making Economy inner soles. 

(a) Channeling. 

(b) Shipping. 

(c) Width of shoulder. 

(1) In shank. 

(2) On ball. 

(3) Around toe. 

(d) Turning lip. 

(e) Sewing lip. 
(/) Tempering. 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 347 

Note. — The making of a welt inner sole affects the very 
foundations of a shoe, for if the work is not properly done in the 
first instance, it can never be remedied, thereby vitally affecting 
the wearing quality as well as the appearance of the finished 
shoe. No attempt should be made to teach inner-sole channeling 
until the operator has been thoroughly grounded on other parts 
of the sole leather department. 

The Retail Shoe Salesmen's Institute, Boston. 
This institute, the only one of its kind in the world, 
was organized in 191 7, but began operations in 1920. 
Its founders comprise the leading dealers of the shoe 
trade throughout the country. While its purpose 
is to train retail shoe salesmen, the material and 
instruction provided by it deal with shoe manufacture 
in part, and would be helpful to all students of the 
industry. The school conducts local classes and 
gives extensive instruction by mail. Following are 
presented statements upon the course and service of 
the school: 

The Retail Shoe Salesmen's Institute is a co-operative 
organization having for its purpose the systematic, scien- 
tific, careful, accurate and comprehensive education and 
training of retail shoe salesmen. It is founded and main- 
tained to co-operate exclusively with retail shoe dealers 
and department buyers in training their salespeople; to 
place in the hands of retail shoe dealers and managers an 
instrument of betterment in their selling department; to 
enable dealers and managers to secure a profit on the in- 
telligence of their salespeople as well as on their physical 
effort. 

Each subject is covered in a volume of about 200 pages 



348 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

and 50,000 words, illustrated wherever illustrations will 
further enlighten, amplify and explain the text. 

Each volume treats its particular subject thoroughly, 
accurately, practically in plain everyday, non-technical 
language always from the standpoint of the retail shoe 
salesman and his job. 

Each volume is printed on good book paper and cloth- 
bound into a handsome book, about 5x8 inches — can be 
carried in coat pocket. 

Considered as a whole the eight volumes cover the 
whole range of the retail salesman's duties providing a 
wealth of accurate information plus a good deal of in- 
spirational material, certain to. fire the ambition and 
enthusiasm of any salesman and to bring out the best that 
is latent in his nature as a man and as a co-operating 
employee. 

The Training of Disabled Soldiers In the Shoe In- 
dustry in Foreign Countries. Shoemaking is one of 
the most popular trades that have been taught dis- 
abled soldiers and sailors, in the course of and after 
the war, in Canada and across the sea. It has, how- 
ever, taken the form of shoe repairing and hand 
shoemaking in the main, with some little training in 
shoe factory processes. The reasons for the popu- 
larity of the trade are that the work is done seated 
and does not require very hard physical efforts, and 
that the trade can be carried on either in a work- 
shop or at home, in the country as well as in the 
city. It does not require much initial expense to 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 349 

start a small cobbler's shop, and the cobbler, even 
in the smallest village, is assured of a fair revenue 
in addition to his pension. The trade therefore 
strongly appeals to men affected with injuries of the 
lower limbs, particularly those of country origin who 
wish to return to their villages. The French Na- 
tional School of Agriculture, at Grignon, has, among 
its reeducation classes, one of shoemaking, as this 
is considered one of the possible " subsidiary " occu- 
pations for a small farmer. In some instances, train- 
ing in shoemaking is combined with that in harness- 
making. 

Training in shoemaking or shoe repairing has 
been carried on in Canada, in the military hospitals 
of Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, Saskatoon, and other 
places ; in a number of technical schools, such as the 
Montreal College of Pharmacy, the Nova Scotia 
Technical School at Halifax, and Queen's University 
at Kingston, Ontario; and in numerous factory work- 
shops, such as those of the Union Shoe Repair Com- 
pany, Toronto, the Wood Shoe Company, the 
Williams Shoe Company, and the Askew Shoe Com- 
pany of Hamilton, Ontario. 

Training in the industry has been given in England 
in the military and orthopedic hospitals, such as the 
Royal Pavilion Hospital, Brighton, the Convalescent 
Hospital, Roehampton, and many others ; at technical 
colleges and institutes, such as the Brixton Poly- 



350 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

technic Institute and the historic Cordwainers Tech- 
nical College of London, and in shoe shops and fac- 
tories throughout the country. In France similar 
training has been provided in the re-education schools 
of Paris and other towns and cities and in technical 
schools and workshops. The industry has been 
taught to disabled men in several Belgian schools and 
in a considerable number of Italian schools, as at 
Turin, Spezia, Pisa, and Milan. Germany has 
taught shoe-making to many of her returned soldiers 
in the workshops of the Army Clothing Department 
and in the hospitals and schools of many communi- 
ties. Austria-Hungary, also, has given special at- 
tention to teaching the making and repairing of 
footwear in her re-education and trade schools. 

The work done in all of these countries in various 
lines of re-education is of very great interest to 
America in her problems of reconstruction. We 
shall here, however, give space only to a short pre- 
sentation of methods and accomplishments in France 
and Great Britain. 

A French official census, covering fifty-six re- 
education schools, has shown that on June 30, 191 6, 
of 2,846 disabled soldiers undergoing training there 
were 466 shoemakers, this being the largest single 
trade group. In the National School at St. 
Maurice, Paris, 152 men attended the shoemaking 
section during the first two years when the total 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 351 

attendance of the school was 803; of the 152, there 
were 143 men with leg or foot injuries; 55 men 
were former peasants. In the school of the Rue du 
Epinettes, 60 men, out of a total of 150, were attend- 
ing the shoemaking shop; 143 shoemakers had been 
placed by the school, up to June 1, 191 7, out of a 
total of 340 graduates in all trades. Of these shoe- 
makers almost all were suffering from leg injuries. 
Former peasants numbering 27, formed the largest 
preoccupational group. In the Lyons school, the 
first re-education school created in France, shoe- 
making at once proved the most popular trade. 
There were in this school, in the first year, 50 men 
in the shoemaking shop, of whom 29 were former 
peasants. At the Tourvielle branch of the Lyons 
schools on May 31, 191 7, 60 shoemakers were gradu- 
ated, out of a total of 129 men for all trades, of 
whom 34 were former peasants. Almost all of these 
were cases of lower limb injuries, 35 were cases of 
leg amputation, one man had both feet amputated, 
and two were legless. 

Dr. Borne, the noted French authority, in his 
general re-education scheme, gives the duration of 
apprenticeship in shoemaking as from one year to 
one year and a half. In actual practice, however, 
both the duration and the methods of training vary 
from one school to another. The apprenticeship is 
generally intensive; after a short time, the student, 



352 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

while at school, is able to do useful work; many of 
the schools are, therefore, in a position to fill out- 
side orders and to be to a larger or less extent self- 
supporting. Thus, while in Nancy the apprentice- 
ship is of six months, it lasts from twelve to fifteen 
months at the Montpellier School. At Bourges 
the apprenticeship is from four to six months for 
repair work, and from ten to twelve months for the 
making of new shoes. At the Saint-Maurice School 
the length of apprenticeship is, on the average, five 
months for repair work, and eight months for the 
making of new shoes. The course is divided into 
three sections of practical instruction. A month's 
training is allowed for plain machine stitching, seam- 
ing, welting and soleing. At the end of five months 
apprentices should be able to re-sole shoes, both 
pegged and hand-sewn. Complete shoes are made by 
men of average ability by the end of eight months. 
The men receive, in addition, theoretical instruction 
in branches essential to carrying on the trade, such as 
study of foot-forms, a knowledge of leathers, and the 
taking of measurements. 

At Port-Villez the shoemaking shop is divided 
into two sections: repair work and the making of 
new shoes. During the first two or three months, 
all students work at repairs ; by the end of one week 
the apprentice is sometimes able to perform useful 
work. The majority, however, pass into the shoe- 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 353 

making section. After five and one-half months, 
men who came from other trades are able to make 
perfectly good military boots. All the orthopedic 
boots for the Institute are made by the apprentices 
of the shoemaking shop. 

At the Tourvielle School the apprenticeship is from 
ten to fifteen months. The apprentices are first 
taught to make their own shoemaker's stirrup and 
glove. In doing that they learn how to make a 
waxed thread and to use the awl. Next they are 
directed to assemble and sew by hand the parts of a 
pair of slippers, which they are allowed to keep for 
their own. Coarse brogans are their next problem 
and then fine boots. After a month's training, the 
student can feel that he is a shoemaker — he has 
made a pair of shoes for sale, with the help of the 
teacher of the course. After ten months or a year, 
he needs only some final lessons on cut and style, on 
the selection of material, on the way to obtain cus- 
tomers and on price fixing, to be able to get along 
by himself. If his physical condition permits, he 
can also have some practice with shoe machinery, 
which has been supplied to this school by the United 
Shoe Machinery Company of France. 

In Great Britain both the making of hand-sewn 
shoes and the factory shoemaking trade have been 
included in the so-called " special trades," in which 
the training and employment of disabled men are of 



354 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

considerable importance and require special regula- 
tions. These regulations have been worked out for 
each trade by a Trade Advisory Committee formed 
of representatives of employers' organizations and 
labor unions. 

The report of the Trade Advisory Committee on 
the Hand-Sewn Boot and Shoemaking and Boot and 
Shoe Repairing distinguishes between two classes of 
disabled men: (i) Those unable to stand continu- 
ously at their work, and (2) those able to stand con- 
tinuously. For the former, the report recommends 
training in all branches of hand boot and shoe re- 
pairing, and in riveting and finishing; for the latter, 
training in hand work is recommended as the best 
introduction to machine boot and shoe repairing, and 
also training in the use of machines used in the 
repairing trade, in view of the fact that a large 
amount of repairing is already done by machinery 
and that this method may possibly grow in the 
future. 

The several processes suitable for the different 
types of disability are as follows: 

(1) Hand-Sewn Boot and Shoemaking and (2) Hand 
Repairing. This work can be done sitting and would be 
quite suitable for a one-legged man. Full use of both 
hands and arms is needed, but the loss of one or two 
fingers would not disqualify. Good eye-sight is required. 
Men suffering from shell-shock may in some cases be 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 355 

likely to find this a suitable occupation. It is not recom- 
mended for men with a tendency to consumption. 

(3) Machine Repairing which includes three processes: 
(a) Bench Work. This is done either standing or sitting, 
but in other respects the requirements are the same as 
for hand work, (b) Machine Stitching. It is standing 
work, and often a treadle has to be compressed by the 
right foot to start the machine and hold down during the 
operation. Both hands are required. The work is light 
and there would be only slight vibration, (c) Finishing 
by Machine. It is principally done standing, but the 
machine can be adjusted so as to be worked while sitting. 
Use of both arms and hands is required, but little or no 
movement of the leg or body. The work is not heavy, 
but it is not recommended for a man with a weak heart 
or a tendency to consumption. 

The training is provided in technical schools or 
other training institutions, or in some cases in work- 
shops. The duration of the training in a school 
is not to exceed twelve months, but in exceptional 
cases it may be completed by an additional six 
months' training under an approved instructor in a 
workshop. The period of training in a workshop 
is eighteen months for shoemaking combined with 
shoe repairing, and twelve months for shoe repairing 
only. 

The first month of training is, in all cases, a trial 
period. If at the end of this period the man proves 
unsuitable for the trade, his training ceases. The 



356 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

employer is required to pay the apprentice a mini- 
mum wage, which, in the eighteen months' course, 
is fixed at 105. per week during the first six months, 
155. during the next six months' and 20s. during the 
last six months.' In the twelve months' course, the 
employer shall pay no wages during the first six 
months, and shall pay 155. per week during the 
second six months. 

One of the first technical schools to institute 
special classes for disabled soldiers in the making 
of hand-sewn shoes was the Cordwainers Technical 
College. The following classes are open: 

1. High Grade Boot and Shoe Making. This course 
extends to at least twelve months and covers the following 
syllabus : 

The making of men's and women's hand-sewn boots. 
The making of sew-rounds. How to take a measure of a 
customer's foot, and fit up lasts for the same. How to 
send a measure to the upper maker or manufacturer. 
The selection and purchase of bottom stock. How to 
cost the finished work. The anatomy of the foot. 

2. High Grade Boot and Shoe Repairing. This course 
extends to at least six months and covers the following 
syllabus : 

The methods of repairing men's and women's hand- 
sewn boots. The repairing of machine-welted boots. 
The repairing of sew-rounds, etc. Patches, blind stabbing, 
and other stitching. Grafting, costing materials and 
work. 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 357 

In factory boot and shoe manufacture, according 
to the Trade Advisory Committee, " as a result of 
the development and use of specialized machinery 
and tools, many of the processes are of a compara- 
tively simple character, not calling for great physi- 
cal exertion and suitable for the employment of 
disabled men of a fair degree of intelligence. The 
work is not heavy, but requires concentration and 
adaptability. The operations generally require the 
full use of hands and arms, but many operations 
would be suitable for a man with an artificial leg, 
provided he is able to stand at his work." 

The report of the Committee indicates the follow- 
ing processes suitable for different types of disability: 

1. Clicking Department. For pattern grading, hand 
clicking and power eyeleting, both hands and arms must 
be uninjured, but the operations would be possible for a 
man with an artificial leg. For the clicking press young 
men are required whose hands, arms and legs are sound. 

2. Rough Stuff Department. For the cutting press 
and roller, young men are required whose hands, arms 
and legs are sound; for grading machines and splitting 
machines the loss of a leg would not necessarily disqualify. 

3. Preparation Department. For sole molders, out- 
sole, and in-sole channeling machines and power skiving 
the full use of hands, arms, and legs is required; work 
especially suitable for young men; a man with an artificial 
leg would not be debarred. 

4. Making Department. For pulling-over machine, 
control tacking, pounding machine, Blake lining, standard 



358 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

screwing, loose nailer, stitching machine, leveler, heel 
attaching machine, loose billing, universal slugger, welt 
sewer, sole layer and rough rounder, young men are re- 
quired who are sound in both hands, arms, and legs. 
Hand tacking is also suitable for older men. Work at 
the rough rounder and welt sewer should be confined to 
men who have had some experience in the trade. 

5. Finishing Department. Heel trimming, edge trim- 
ming, edge setting, and bottom scouring are suitable for 
men with an artificial leg, but both hands and arms must 
be uninjured. Heel scouring and heel burnishing require 
young and active men whose hands and arms are sound; 
an artificial leg would not necessarily disqualify. 

The course of training in any process shall be 
divided into a probationary period and an improver's 
period. The probationary period must as a general 
rule, be spent in a technical school, though in ex- 
ceptional cases the Local War Pension Committee 
may permit the man to spend it in a factory. The 
improver's period shall in all cases be spent in a 
factory. 

The length of training varies for the different 
processes. It ranges from twelve weeks for power 
eyeleting to fifty-two weeks for hand cutting. 

During the training in a factory the employer 
shall pay the man a minimum wage, according to a 
graded scale prepared by the Trade Advisory Com- 
mittee, and ranging from 10s. to 25s. a week. 

While undergoing training in any trade, the dis- 



TRAINING IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY 359 

abled soldier receives from the Ministry of Pensions 
the difference between his wages and the pension paid 
for total disability (275. 6d. per week for a private). 
His wife receives a separation allowance and a main- 
tenance allowance for each child. The Ministry of 
Pensions assumes the payment of all tuition fees and 
other expenses entailed by the training. 

For every trade there have been created local 
Technical Advisory Committees, formed of repre- 
sentatives of employers' associations and labor 
unions, which select candidates for training, examine 
the suitability of the training offered in the technical 
schools or similar institutes or in the factories, and 
receive applications from employers for the supply 
of men after training. 

The question of wages to be paid disabled men 
after training is to be settled entirely by the Local 
Technical Advisory Committee, or by Special Ad- 
visory Wage Boards which are being created by 
the Secretary of Labor in the principal towns. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE SHOE REPAIRING INDUSTRY 

Shoe Repairing Now a Shop Industry. The indi- 
vidual shoe cobbler is still found in almost every 
community, but in recent years repairing has be- 
come a special branch of the great shoe industry. 
It is now a shop industry in itself. There are ap- 
proximately 50,000 shoe repair shops in this coun- 
try, with an annual business of more than 
$300,000,000. These range from the shop in which 
one man does handwork to the shops conducted by 
retail stores and the large independent shops which 
have machinery and employ a considerable number 
of workers. Probably nearly 20,000 of these larger 
shops are fitted out with modern shoe machinery. 
Such machinery is manufactured especially for repair 
work and is simplified since it must sometimes be 
operated by unskilled workers or by workers who 
have not had experience in the shoe factory. 
Usually the machines are all set on one motor-drive 
shaft along one side of the shop, and comprise the 
lockstitch sole sewing machine, the leveler, trimmer, 
edge setter, and burnishing and polishing brushes. 
A shop may have several sets of machines on which 

360 



THE SHOE REPAIRING INDUSTRY 361 

a team of men usually works. Such a shop may 
employ from twenty-five to thirty-five men and may 
repair from 60,000 to 70,000 pairs of shoes a year. 
A few shops employ as many as sixty or seventy 
men. A tag system is used resembling that of a 




Shop of the Philadelphia Shoe Repairing Company, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 



regular factory. In a small shop each worker may 
be capable of doing all the repair processes. In 
the large shop the work is subdivided. As many as 
seven , men, each doing a particular process, may 
work at the same time on the machines of the shaft. 
Some such concerns call for shoes at the homes of 



362 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



customers and return them after making the neces- 
sary repairs. In many of the shops a shoe shining 
department is maintained, and nearly all of them 
sell shoe supplies. 





1 






1^^** 


Jlf ^'~: 


&>.,■ \;*-, 


WSKi 



Men Working at a Motor-Drive Set of Shoe Repairing Machinery 

A brief and comprehensive statement of this de- 
velopment is the following, from American Shoe- 
making for June 12, 191 5: 

" The industry of repairing shoes has grown swiftly 
in the last few years, and now is of such size that 
it may be recognized as a special branch of the great 
shoe industry." 

" The main thing in the modern shoe repairing busi- 



THE SHOE REPAIRING INDUSTRY 363 

ness is to build up patronage. Salesmanship is as neces- 
sary to success in it as is good workmanship. Somebody 
must go out and convince customers that they should 
have their shoes re-soled, or otherwise repaired. This 
selling work may be carried on in big cities, small cities, 
in towns, or out in the country. 

" In the business district of one large city some boot- 
blacks put some repair machines in their back shop. 
One of them went among the offices of the neighborhood 
asking for shoes to be repaired. He offered to give tickets 
good for six free shines with every pair of shoes that he 
re-soled. By this means a repair business was built up 
among occupants of the offices sufficient to keep four men 
employed. Besides, the shoe shining business flourished. 

" In the small cities and towns, the repair men send 
agents in autos, or on motorcycles, along the highways, 
to call at door after door and collect shoes to be repaired 
and returned. In some western communities the steam 
laundries have started shoe departments, and their wagons 
collect shoes to be shined or repaired, and to be returned 
with the regular basket of laundry. 

" The rapid increase in the repair business has probably 
cut into the sale of new shoes. But it has opened a new 
field for enterprising men in the starting of repair shops, 
and in selling goods to repair shops." 

Shoe Repairing Advanced by the War. There are 
now over eighty local organizations of shoe repairers 
in the United States, and the increasing cost of 
leather and footwear during the war and after has 
given a great impetus to the industry. An investi- 
gation into machine shoe repairing throughout the 



364 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

country has recently been made by Mr. Frank W. 
Whitcher of Boston, some of the results of which 
may be summarized as follows: 1 

1. Machine shoe repairing has supplanted hand repair- 
ing to the extent of eighty per cent in the Middle States 




Photo by Central News Photo Service, New York. 

New Auto Shoe Repair Trucks of the U. S. Army. Designed 
and equipped by the United Shoe Machinery Corporation of 
Beverly, Mass. One truck carries a full outfit of machinery, the 
other of supplies. By this system 800 pairs of shoes can be 
repaired daily. 

and Northwest, fifty per cent in the Far West, seventy- 
five per cent in the South, and ninety per cent in the 
East. 

2 . The number of men employed varies from the boss 
and one to three or four men in shops having a single 
machine repair outfit to the city shop having several out- 
fits and using from thirty-five to forty men. 

3. The average shop repairs from twenty-five to forty 
pairs of shoes per day, or ten to twelve pairs for each man 
working. 

1 See article on " $300,000,000 Spent for Shoe Repairs " in 
The Shoe Repairer and Dealer for August, 191 7. 



THE SHOE REPAIRING INDUSTRY 365 

4. The business of the average shop amounts to $1 on 
each pair of shoes repaired, being from $25 to $40 a day 
or from $6,000 to $12,000 a year. 

5. The yearly percentage of increase in repairing since 
the outbreak of the war has been from fifteen to forty per 
cent in the Middle States and Northwest, fifty per cent 
in the West and South, and from twenty-five to forty per 
cent in the East. 

Learning Machine Shoe Repairing. The hand shoe 
repairer may easily learn machine shoe repairing. 
He may secure an equipment of machinery, hire 
helpers if necessary, and open a repair shop. Men 
of mechanical ability may be taken into the repair 
shop to learn both hand processes and machine 
operations. From these machine operations they 
may pass directly into corresponding work in the 
shoe factory. Less frequently, workers in the 
factory leave and open shops of their own. 

Steps were taken during the war in several places 
to provide special training in shoe repairing, for 
returned soldiers and others, because of the scarcity 
of men for the repair shops. Plans were not fully 
formulated and the early closing of the war delayed 
them, but it may be stated that a well-known shoe 
machinery repairing company contemplated turning 
one of its local shops into a repairing school to be 
conducted under Government or other auspices for 
the benefit of the entire industry. 



366 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Earnings in the Industry. In the small shop, em- 
ploying few workers, and doing mostly hand repair- 
ing, the earnings may vary from two to five dollars 
or more a day. In the large shop, in which repair 
work is done mainly by machinery, the operator 
earns about the same as he would in the same proc- 
esses in the shoe factory. Employment in repairing 
is fairly steady through the year in most communi- 
ties, but it is somewhat reduced in the large town or 
city during the summer season. 

Opportunities for Handicapped Men in Shoe Re- 
pairing. Disabled men may become individual shoe 
repairers even if having only one good hand and an 
efficient appliance for the other. Hand repairing is 
regularly done seated. At present machine repairing 
in done standing, but seats might easily be arranged 
at the machines as may be done in the shoe factory 
for women and disabled men. The handicapped 
man will not meet the difficulty of factory speed in 
the shoe repair shop, except at times in team work, 
so that he may enter it even if he is not capable of 
making a large daily output. One or more men who 
have physical handicaps and who are familiar with 
shoe work, or who may learn it in their industrial 
re-education, might successfully open a machine shoe 
repair shop in any community. Repairing ma- 
chinery may be leased or purchased outright at 
comparatively low cost. 



THE SHOE REPAIRING INDUSTRY 367 

Action by the Trade Promotion Bureau. The 
Trade Promotion Bureau of the National Leather 
and Shoe Finders' Association, at St. Louis, has 
recently taken up the matter of the advancement of 
the shoe repairing industry. A letter from Mr. 





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Interior of the Shoe Repair Truck, U. S. Army 

George A. Knapp, Secretary-Director of the Bureau, 
to the writer, is herewith reproduced: 

I have your esteemed favor of November 8, and I want 
to thank yourself and Mr. Whitcher for giving me this 
opportunity of briefly laying before you the work which 
the Trade Promotion Bureau, of which I am Director, has 
undertaken. This Trade Promotion Bureau is supported 
by the members of the National Leather & Shoe Finders' 
Assn., which is comprised of manufactures, tanners and 
jobbers, who supply the materials used by the shoe re- 
pairers throughout the United States. We have felt for 



368 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

a long time that the shoe repairing service which the pub- 
lic has been receiving is not of the proper caliber. We 
are convinced that shoe repairing is just as important to 
the public as other repair service, because when it is prop- 
erly done it doubles the life of a shoe; and is, from this 
standpoint, of great economy to the public. Therefore, 
our Trade Promotion Bureau has, for the past nine 
months, been carrying on a propaganda that has for its 
ultimate object the advancement of the shoe repairing 
industry. We have been striving during this time to im- 
press upon the shoe repairers that good workmanship and 
good materials constitute a quality job of shoe, repairing 
and we have been trying to convince them that if they 
will give this kind of shoe repairing service to the public 
they will advance their interests and make shoe repairing 
a more popular service than it is today. We have also 
tried to get the shoe repairer to improve his business 
policies by introducing salesmanship, by making his shoe 
repair shop a supply depot, by keeping an account of his 
business and by advertising the service that he can render, 
in his neighborhood. In order to bring these suggestions 
to the shoe repairer in concrete form we have gotten up 
some advertising suggestions and we have sold over 
200,000 of these to the shoe repairers at cost. We have 
also prepared an account book which we sell to the shoe 
repairer at 50 cents. This book is large enough to take 
care of two years' business, and hence costs the shoe re- 
pairer but two cents a month. We have issued several 
pamphlets and written a number of letters to the shoe 
repairer, urging these improvements in his business. At 
the present time I am preparing a pamphlet that will show 
the interested shoe repairer just how important his service 



THE SHOE REPAIRING INDUSTRY 369 

is to the public and that it should take its place in line 
with other neighborhood service. 

I also wish to state that at the present time we are try- 
ing to interest the Trade and Manual Schools throughout 
the United States in adding shoe repairing courses so that 
the pupils in these schools may be taught the art of shoe 
repairing. We have done little along this line as yet, as I 
have been unable to obtain a list of these Trade Schools, 
but I now have assurance from the Government that 
they will furnish me a. list of these schools and as soon 
as I get this list I will take this matter up with each of 
these schools direct. 

We know for a fad that shoe repairing is an honorable 
occupation and that it may be made a very remunerative 
one, and we believe that the time has come when shoe 
repairing will soon take its stand alongside of such service 
as the laundries, the clothes pressers, and other services 
which cater to the general public. 

Crippled men can do this work just as well as men who 
have all their limbs. I believe that a man with one hand 
can do just as good shoe repairing as a man with two, and 
the loss of his lower limbs would not affect his efficiency 
at all. Of course, one would have to have good eyesight, 
as we are now using power machinery in shoe repairing 
and it would be dangerous to permit blind people to enter 
the industry. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE SHOE FINDINGS INDUSTRY 

Shoe findings comprise all the parts used as acces- 
sories to boot and shoe manufacture, retail trade, and 
repair. Findings accompany the shoe from its 
beginning until it is worn out by the consumer. 
Their importance increases with the growing magni 
tude of the shoe industry. They can be produced 
so much more cheaply, and in such quantities, in 
special, separate factories, that they now constitute 
individual small industries which supply the manu- 
facturer, dealer, and repairer throughout the world. 
They represent the extreme of specialization in 
manufacture and trade. Some large shoe factories 
make a few of their findings, such as counters, toe 
boxes, and shanks, but the great bulk of such things 
come from special manufacturers. 

Shoe Findings Manufacture in the United States. 
There were no findings manufactured in this country, 
on any scale of importance, until about ioo years 
ago, although shoe manufacture became a distinct 
American industry immediately after the Revolution. 
For forty or fifty years after the Revolution, as 
before, shoe manufacturers and dealers imported 

370 



THE SHOE FINDINGS INDUSTRY 371 

their findings from European countries. The 
earliest date known for findings manufacture and 
business in the United States was 1826. A firm was 
established in Boston in that year by John Tillson. 
That firm still exists as the Frank W. Whitcher 
Company, whose head is regarded as the leading 
authority upon the findings industry in this country 
today. Few other firms, so far as is known, were 
established before the Civil War period, when many 
appeared in the decade of the sixties through the 
impetus given to shoe manufacture by the war. 
Since that period findings factories have increased 
with great rapidity and frequent consolidations until 
there are now over 350 in the country, employing 
about 8,000 persons. There is also a National 
Leather and Shoe Finders Association, comprising 
316 firms in 1918. 

To show that the shoe findings industry is at 
present centered largely in Massachusetts, the 
following statement made expressly for this chapter 
by Mr. Frank W. Whitcher is added : 

" While manufacturers in other sections of the country 
are increasing their production, Boston and its surround- 
ing cities and towns supply at the present time 65 per 
cent of all of the boot and shoe findings manufactured 
in the country, furnish employment to 65 per cent of 
those engaged in the business, have 70 59/100 per cent 
of the capita] employed, and the value of their product 
is 67 1/5 per cent of the total output of Shoe Findings 
in the United States." 



372 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



The European War has reduced findings manu- 
facture, through a reduction in the number of styles, 
colors, and kinds of footwear and the elimination of 
buttons, bows, and ornaments. 

The Chief Articles Included in Shoe Findings. The 
shoe findings now manufactured as separate indus- 
tries include the following articles: 



Linings 

Webbings 

Trimmings 

Pipings 

Cotton and paper 

specialties 
Fillers 
Blacking 
Dressings 
Polishes 
French chalk 
Wax 

Burnishing ink 
Shoe brushes 
Bindings 
Steel and 

wooden shanks 
Counters 
Fibreboard 
Toe boxes 
Wooden, cork, and 

rubber heels 
Shoe forms 
Arch supporters 
Metal protectors 



Vamp stays 

Rands 

Straps 

Beading 

Leather and cloth bows and 

ornaments 
Fancy buckles 
Eyelets 
Lacing hooks 
Lacings 
Buttons 
Button hooks 
Shoe horns 
Backstays 
Iron lasts 
Nails 
Tacks 
Pegs 
Sole leather parts for repairs, 

such as soles, taps 

and heel lifts 
Shoe thread 
Repairing tools, such as 

knives, lap stone, shoe 

hammers, awls, and needles 



THE SHOE FINDINGS INDUSTRY 373 

Four Classes of Shoe Findings. Shoe findings may 
be divided into four general classes, as follows: 

1. Shoe Manufacturer's Goods, 

2. Shoe Store Supplies, 

3. Leather and Findings for Shoe Repair, 

4. Shoe Dressings and Polishes. 

Shoe manufacturer's goods include all the findings, 
parts used in the shoe factory, from cut stock and 
linings to dressings and polishes. These goods em- 
brace most of the articles contained in the long list 
which precedes. 

Shoe store supplies include the small articles 
usually sold by the shoe retailer, such as shoe forms, 
arch supports, lacings, dressings, and polishes. 
Dealers usually give away, for advertising purposes, 
such things as button hooks and shoe horns. 

The articles used by the shoe repairer are in part 
the same as those used by the manufacturer, such 
as leather parts for bottoming, nails, pegs, threads, 
dressings, and polishes. They include also the tools 
of the repairing trade, as shown in the list. The 
hand repairer generally deals also in the supplies 
which are regularly carried by the retailer. 

Dressings and polishes are not always classed 
separately, as they enter into the three other divi- 
sions so generally. Yet their manufacture is entirely 
separate, and they are of great importance both 
industrially and commercially. 



374 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Each Shoe Finding a Separate Industry. The 
manufacture of each kind of shoe findings, which 
altogether are approximately 50 in number, is in 
itself a small industry. The 350 factories of the 
country employ about 7,000 people at the present 
time, an average of 20 persons to a factory. Some 
factories, of course, employ more, as in the case of 
the manufacture of dressings and polishes in which 
there are several establishments whose employees 
number from 100 to 200. Many factories, on the 
other hand, are little more than small shops, and 
give employment to but 5 or 8 or 10 persons. 

Women in the Industry. Girls and women are 
largely employed in some branches of the findings 
industry, which consists of the manufacture of small, 
light articles that women can handle especially well. 
Many of the machines used are well suited to opera- 
tion by women, or have been built especially for that 
purpose. The proportion of the sexes in the occu- 
pation varies from the making of iron lasts, for the 
shoe repairer, in the foundry employing men almost 
exclusively down to the making of shoe lacings which 
is as distinctly a woman's occupation. Altogether, 
however, women constitute only about one third of 
the wage earners of the industry. 

The employees of the typical findings factory are 
divided about as shown in the following diagram: 



THE SHOE FINDINGS INDUSTRY 375 

The Division of Employees in the Typical Findings Factory 



One 

Foreman 



Two or 3 Men 
expert in im- 
portant proc- 
esses or oper- 
ators of heavy 
machines 



One Man or 
Boy for heavy 
unskilled work 
or for ship- 
ping 



From 6 to 10 Girls and 
Women for light ma- 
chine or hand processes 
and for the handling 
and packing of manu- 
factured goods 



It is not necessary to present at length here the 
manufacture of many or all kinds of findings. Some 
of them, especially toe boxes, heels, counters, and 
sole leather parts, have been fully treated in this 
volume, in earlier chapters. Most of the findings 
are closely related to other industries, and some are 
scarcely more than by-products of other kinds of 
manufacture. The making and preparation of 
fabric parts and lacings, for example, are associated 
with the textile industry, and the manufacture of 
repair tools belongs to the machine tool industry. 
Shoe brushes come from the brush factory, and 
fibreboard from the paper mill. Rubber heels are 
made in the rubber factory, and shoe thread in the 
thread mill. Wooden foot forms are supplied by the 
last maker. Shoe buttons are manufactured in the 
button factory. The United Shoe Machinery Cor- 
poration, which supplies machinery and repair parts 
to approximately 95 per cent of the shoe factories 
of the country, manufactures wire nails, tacks, and 
pegs in special small factories and supplies a large 
part of the trade in these articles. 



376 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

The Making of the Shoe Shank. As an example of 
the development and manufacture of one of the most 
important kinds of shoe findings the shoe shank is 
here treated at length. Primarily the shank of the 
shoe in the part of the sole between the heel and the 
ball of the shoe. In shoemaking the shank is a 
reinforcement placed between the outer and inner 
soles in that part. Its purpose is to give shape or 
style and elasticity to the shoe. 

Fifty years ago the shoemaker used hard scraps 
of leather for shoe shanks, trimmed by hand to the 
desired shape. Thin pieces of wood, molded to 
shape on primitive machines, soon came into use, 
and later strips of hand pressed leatherboard. From 
1877 to 1885 a single firm in this country had a 
monopoly of the manufacture and sale of molded 
shanks. About the year 1885 numerous patents 
were granted on shanks and on machinery for pro- 
ducing them. One form was a strip of flexible steel 
with leatherboard cover or casing. All these and 
other kinds of shanks are now in use according to 
the kind of shoe to be manufactured. There is, 
however, a constant tendency to use the kinds of 
better quality, as shoes sell and wear better with 
the more durable shank reinforcement. 

The use of prepared shanks is universal and the 
world's supply is produced mainly in this country. 

The making of a kind of shank now in very 
general use may be fully described here. It is the 



THE SHOE FINDINGS INDUSTRY 377 

wood or fibreboard shank, which itself has a steel 
reinforcement to maintain its shape permanently. 
Its manufacture falls into the three lines of wood, 
fibreboard, and steel work, each of which is usually 
done in a separate factory. 

The wood part or base is manufactured by the 
following processes: 

First, the wood is stripped from logs, upon a great 
lathe, in rolls about an eight of an inch thick and 
as wide as the shank is to be long. This work re- 
quires the full strength of an able-bodied man. 
Second, the rolls are fed endwise into a cutting machine, 
which cuts off strips of the width required for shanks. 
This work may be done by girls or women seated. 

The wooden pieces are then sorted and made 
ready to receive the steel reinforcement. 

The fibreboard base is treated as follows: 

First, the fibreboard sheet is cut into strips, correspond- 
ing to the wooden rolls, as wide as the shank is to 
be long. This is done on a machine, the operator 
standing, and requires ability to move about freely. 

Second, these strips are fed into a cutting machine, 
and made into individual shank pieces, ready tor 
reinforcement. This work is done by girls and 
women seated. 

The work on the steel reinforcement, which is 
the most difficult and important of all, is as follows: 

First, the strips, or " ribbons," of steel plate, which 
comes from the fabricating steel mill, are fed into a 
heavy machine which cuts off pieces for the rein- 
forcement, punches holes in the ends for attaching 



378 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 



to the wood or fibreboard shank, and bends or 
molds them into shape. 
Second, the reinforcing pieces are placed in a temper- 
ing furnace, where they are tempered to the right 
degree of flexibility. 

The operators in these two processes are es- 
sentially steel workers, and must have good training 
and ability. 

Finally the parts are brought together in the shank 
factory and the steel reinforcement is attached to 
the wood or fibreboard shank by tacks or nails 
through each end. This work is done by girls or 
women. 

The processes may be shown by diagram in the 
following manner: 

DIAGRAM SHOWING MANUFACTURE OF REINFORCED SHANK 



THE WOODEN SHANK BASE 




THE FIBREBOARD SHANK BASE 


Prepared by 


Prepared by 


1. Stripping off rolls of 




1. Cutting Sheefs of 


wood on a lathe, 




fibreboard into strips, 


3. Cutting the rolls into 




2. Cutting the strips into 


shank pieces on a machine, 




shank pieces, 


Assembling:. 




Assembling. 


1 


' 




' 


f 




THE REINFORCED SHANK 






Completed by attaching 






the tempered steer rein- 






forcement to the wood 






or fibre wood base. 








t 


< 








THE TEMPERED STEEL SHANK-REINFORCEMENT 






Prepared by 






1. Cutting reinforcement pieces from 






ribbons of steel plate, 






2. Tempering these pieces to the right 






elasticity in a furnace, 






Assembling. 





THE SHOE FINDINGS INDUSTRY 379 





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CHAPTER XVII 

AN EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS USED IN 
SHOEMAKING 

The Need of Knowing These Terms. For an 
intelligent reading or study of factory departments 
and processes it will be found necessary to know 
the meaning of the chief technical terms used in 
connection with leather and shoe manufacture. An 
explanation of a process in popular language only 
would prevent an exact and clear understanding of 
its nature. It is well to describe industry to one 
who wishes to enter it, either temporarily or as a 
life occupation in such a way as to show it in its 
real setting and to use " shop language " as far as 
may be necessary to a right presentation of it. One 
should, if possible, see a machine in operation and 
hear the workman who operates it explain the work- 
ing of the machine. The language of the trade is 
simple but expressive, and not at all difficult to 
understand. Throughout the pages of this book 
processes and machines are spoken of in technical 
terms and explained in popular language, so as to 
give the reader who may not be able to visit the 
factory an accurate and helpful picture of modern 

3 8o 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 381 

shoemaking. Terms relating mainly to leather are 
given in Chapter V on Leather. Herewith, in 
Chapter XVII, is presented an explanation of the 
more common terms used in shoemaking. 

Acid-Tanned. Tanned by a mineral acid, instead of by 
a vegetable substance such as the bark of certain 
trees and plants. 

Adjustment. The fastening by which the shoe is ad- 
justed to the foot, such as button, strap and buckle, 
webbing or lacing. 

Aloft. (See " Stitched Aloft.") 

Anatomic. Referring to the conformity of the shoe 
to the natural shape of the foot. 

Arch. The bony framework of the foot between the 
heel and the toes. The " broken arch " is a settling 
of this part of the foot due to a yielding of the 
muscles and ligaments. An " arch-support " is a me- 
chanical contrivance placed in the shoe beneath the 
arch of the foot to keep it in its natural position. The 
term arch is used also for the corresponding portion 
of the shoe bottom. 

Assembling. Putting together the various parts of the 

shoe as they come from separate departments of the 

factory. It includes the tacking of the inner sole to 

the last, inserting the toe box and counter of the shoe, 

1 and putting the upper part of the shoe on the last. 

Backstay. A strip of leather covering and strengthening 
the back seam of a shoe on the outside. 

Back Strap. The strap or loop by which the. shoe is 
pulled on the foot. 

Bal. An abbreviation of Balmoral, the original English 



J 



382 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

name for the shoe. A front-laced shoe of medium 

height, as distinguished from shoes adjusted by other 

fastenings, and also from other patterns of shoes, such 

as Blucher or Oxford. 
Ball. The fleshy part of the foot back of the toes, or 

the corresponding part of the shoe or of the last. 
Beading. Folding in the skived edges of the upper 

leather; or making an impression by a wheel around 

the sole of the shoe above the heel. Frequently called 

" seat wheeling." Sometimes referring to the beads 

placed on the vamps of women's slippers. 
Beating Out. The term used for leveling the bottom 

of the shoe. 
Bellows Tongue. A wide folding tongue sewed to the 

sides of the top for the purpose of making it water 

tight, as in the case of heavy shoes for working or 

tramping. 
Belting. That part of bark tanned cowhide, rubber, or 

canvas used for machinery belts. 
Bench-Made.' Applying to shoes made by hand at the 

cobbler's bench. 
Bend. The main or best portion of a side of leather. 
Blackball. A mixture of grease and lamp-black used 

by hand shoe workers to polish the edges of soles 

and heels. 

Blacking the Edge. Dyeing the edge of the sole or 

welt after the shoe has passed through the making 

1 
room. 

Blind Eyelet. An eyelet inserted on the inner side of 
the eyelet facing, the hole on the outer side being 
left raw-edged. 

Blocking. The cutting of a sole into rough or approxi- 
mate shape, suitable for rounding. Also cutting top 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 383 

or vamp into form suitable for the use of the pattern. 

Blucher. The name of a high shoe or half boot origi- 
nated by Field Marshall Blucher of the Prussian Army 
in the time of the first Napoleon. Its distinguishing 
feature is the extension of the quarters forward to lace 
across the tongue. The name now applies to any 
shoe having this extension. 

Boot. A term usually and properly restricted to high- 
cut foot wear with tongue of firm leather, and some- 
times laced, as in hunting boots. Formerly high 
footwear with no fastening. Often restricted to 
women's high-cut shoes. 

Bottom Filling. The filler for the low space in the 
bottom, between outer and inner sole, in the fore part 
of the shoe, as ground cork or tarred felt. 

Bottoming Finishing. The final polishing, buffing, and 
other processes applied to the bottom of a completed 
shoe. 

Bottoming Scouring. Sandpapering the parts of the 
sole in front of the heel. 

Box. A reinforcement placed in the toe of a shoe to 
preserve its shape, made of leather, leatherboard, 
canvas stiffened with glue or shellac, or other material. 
Called also " box toe." 

Brogan. A heavy pegged or nailed work shoe of medium 
height. 

Broken Arch. (See Arch). 

Brushing. Finishing the edge, heel, or bottom with 
a polishing brush. 

Buckram. Canvas stiffened with glue and used as a 
toe box or as a backing for shoe fabrics. 

Buffing. Scouring off the outer grain side of leather. 
See bottom scouring. 



384 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Button. The use of the button as a shoe fastening is 
of quite recent date, having increased very rapidly 
since about 1907. At the present time women's shoes 
are about one-half of the buttoned type. The latest 
tendency is to seek ornamental effects through the use 
of special materials for shoe buttons. 

Button Fly. The strip of leather in the front of the 
top of a button shoe having the button holes. 

Cabaretta. A tanned sheepskin of superior quality and 
finish. 

Calfskin. Skins of neat cattle / up to fifteen pounds 
weight. For trade convenience such are called " calf- 
skin," those weighing from fifteen to twenty- five 
pounds, " kips," and all above twenty-five pounds are 
called hides. Calfskin makes a strong pliable leather 
highly susceptible to polish and to a dull, velvet or 
" Suede " finish, or to a patent leather finish. It has 
long been in use for all kinds of shoes. 

Calking Machine. An appliance to shape the inner 
sole of a shoe in conformity with the bottom of the 
foot. 

Carton. The pasteboard box in which each pair of 
shoes is packed. A comparatively late development 
in the trade. Formerly pairs of shoes were fastened 
together with strings at the heel; after that they were 
sometimes wrapped in pairs in ordinary paper. Stand- 
ard sizes of cartons are now generally used, for con- 
venience in packing in cases and for uniformity in 
size when the cartons are placed upon shelves in the 
shoe store. 

Case. The box in which shoes are packed for shipment. 
Men's shoes are usually packed twelve pairs in a case; 
women's, twenty- four to thirty-six pairs. 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 385 

Channel. A slanting cut around the edge of the sole 
for convenience in stitching the top to the bottom of 
the shoe. The lip of the channel or the raised portion 
is cemented down after the stitching so as to preserve 
the stitch from immediate wear. Channeling means 
preparing the channel for the stitch. 

Channel Screwed. The bottom held to the upper by 
wire screws fastening in the channel. 

Channel Stitched. The soles fastened to the uppers 
by stitches which are concealed in the channel. 

Channel Turning. Raising the lip of sole leather, or 
channel, so that the stitching can be done beneath it. 

Chrome-tanned. Tanned by the use of bichromate of 
potash and muriatic acid. 

Clicking. Cutting the uppers of shoes by a machine. 

Closing On. Stitching the lining and outside together 
at the top, wrong side out. 

Collar. A narrow strip of leather stitched around the 
outside of the shoe at the top. 

Colonial. A woman's low shoe with wide tongue and 
ornamental buckle. 

Combination Last. One having an instep of different 
width from that of the ball. Also a last that will allow 
both low and high shoes to be made upon it. 

Congress Gaiter. A shoe having rubber goring for 
adjustment at the ankles. 

Copper Toe. A copper outer boxing to protect the 
toe in children's shoes. 

Counter. The stiffening in the back or heel part of a 
shoe to support the heel and prevent the shoe from 
running over, usually made of leather, leatherboard, 
felt, or canvas stiffened with shellac or paste. 



386 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Cravenette. A proprietary name for a closely woven 

cloth used in shoe uppers. 
Creasing Vamp. Making hollow grooves or wrinkles 

across the front of the vamp. 
Crimping. Shaping any part of the upper to conform 

to the last. 
Crop. A side of leather after the belly part has been 

cut-off. 
Cushion Sole. An elastic or padded inner sole, usually 

of felt. 
Custom-Made. Made by hand to special order and 

measurement. 
Cut-off Vamp. One cut off at the tip and stitched to 

the toe cap, not extending under the tip beyond the 

tip stitching. 
Dieing or Dinking. Cutting soles or other parts of 

the shoe with machine and die. 
Dom Pedro. A heavy single-buckle shoe with bellows 

tongue, usually of a cheap grade. 
Dressing. A process for restoring the finish of the 

upper. Also used for the materials for cleaning and 

polishing the shoe. 
Edge Setting. Finishing and polishing the edge of the 

shoe. 
Edge Trimming. Cutting the edge of the shoe smoothly 

to conform to the shape of the last. 
Embossing. Stamping or carving figures and trade- 
marks on leather. 
Eyelet. A small ring of metal set in the lacing hole. 

The eyelet hole is sometimes worked with thread. 
Fabric. A general term for the cloths used in shoe- 
making. 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 387 

Facing. The leather used around the top of the shoe 
and down the eyelet row, inside. 

Fair Stitch. The stitching sometimes run around the 
edge of the sole to give the McKay the appearance 
of the welt. 

Filler. A light, hollow, wooden form used to keep a 
shoe in shape. Called also " form." 

Findings. The small parts or accessories of a shoe, 
practically everything except leather and lining, such 
as laces, polishes, cement, nails, brushes, thread, and 
numerous other incidental articles used in the making 
and care of shoes. 

Finish. Polishing, buffing or other final treatment of 
the soles of shoes. 

Fitting. The selection and adjustment of ready-made 
shoes to the foot of the wearer. In the old days of 
hand work, shoes were made to individual measure- 
ment. Such is still the case with the " custom shoe " 
where the added cost can be afforded. The factory- 
made shoe, of typical form, throws upon the salesman 
in the retail store the problem of fitting. Some adjust- 
ment can be provided by stretching the upper or by 
moving buttons, but it is chiefly a problem of right 
selection from standard patterns. 

Fitting Room. The department of the factory in which 
the various parts of the upper of the shoe are stitched 
together, before going to the lasting room. 

Form. (See heel). Used also for the bench of the 
hand shoemaker. 

Foxing. That part of the upper extending from the 
sole to the lacing or adjustment in front, and to about 
the height of the counter in the back, being the full 



388 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

length of the upper. More simply, the lower part of 
the quarter. 

French Size Marking. A cipher or secret method of 
marking concealing from the customer the exact size 
of the shoe. Many varieties of this system are in use. 

Gaiter. A term now applied mainly to a separate ankle 
covering. 

Gem Insoles. A cloth-reinforced leather insole for 
welt shoes. 

Golf Shoe. A low shoe with rubber sole used for 
out-door sports. 

Goodyear Welt. The method of attaching the sole to 
the upper by the use of a narrow strip of leather 
called the welt. 

Gore. A rubber elastic used on both sides for the ad- 
justment of a Congress shoe. 

Grading. The sorting of soles for uniform thickness 
in the edges of finished shoes. Also selecting skins 
for shoes of different prices. 

Half -Sole. Half of a complete sole used under the front 
part of the out sole. 

Heel. The leather or other material attached to the 
back part of the sole, or " heel seat," to give a desired 
height above ground. The chief varieties are named 
after their style or shape. Their height is usually 
expressed in eighths of an inch. Heels are made in 
layers or lifts of leather, of wood, of leatherboard, 
and of substitutes for leather. The breast of the heel 
is its front face. The French heel is extremely high 
with a curved outline; the Cuban, high with straight 
outline ; the military, like the Cuban but lowej: ; the 
spring heel is very low and formed by inserting a 
slip of leather between the out sole and the heel seat, 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 389 

so that the out sole forms the heel; the flange heel 
is made flaring toward the bottom. In women's fabric 
shoes heels are often covered with the same material 
as the upper. The " pitch " of a heel is its direction 
or inclination under the foot. Heels are attached 
to the heel seat by nails and cementing. The nails 
inside the shoe are covered by a small piece of felt 
or other substance called the heel pad. 

Heel Scouring. Sandpapering the outside surface of 
the heel. 

Heel Seat. The rounded part of the sole on which the 
heel is fastened. Heel seat nailing consists in nailing 
this part of the sole; heel seat trimming, smoothing 
this part. 

Heel Shaving. Shaping the heel by shaving off the 
surplus leather. 

Hemlock Tanned. Preserved by the use of hemlock 
bark. 

Inseam Trimming. Cutting off surplus leather from 
the seam which fastens the upper to the bottom in the 
turn shoe and in the welt. 

Insole. The inner sole of a sewed shoe, which is first 
placed upon the last. The inner soles are attached to 
both the upper and out sole. 

Inspecting. Examining shoes for imperfections. 

Ironing Uppers. Smoothing the upper with a hot iron. 

Lace. A string of leather or fabric used in adjusting and 
holding the shoe to the foot. 

Lace Stay. A strip of leather reinforcing the eyelet 
holes. 

Lap Stone. An iron plate or stone upon which the 
cobbler beats sole leather or seams or folded edges 
with a flat faced hammer. 



390 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Last. The wooden or metal form upon which the shoe 
is constructed, and which gives the shoe its distinctive 
shape. 

Lasting. Stretching the upper tightly over and making 
it conform to the last. Assembling and pulling over 
the parts of the upper on the last. 

Leveling. Shaping the sole to the bottom of the last 
by the use of heavy rollers or molds. 

Lift. A single thickness of the material used in the heel. 

Lining. The inside part of the upper, made of fabric 
or of thin, light-weight leather. 

Low cut. A general term applying to such low shoes 
as Oxford, pump, tie, colonial, slipper, and sandal. 

McKay Sewed. A mode of shoemaking named after 
the inventor. After the upper is lasted upon the inner 
sole the last is removed and the outer sole is attached 
by a thread passing directly through the upper and 
inner sole. The out sole is generally channeled and 
the lining is put over the inner seam, on the inside 
of the shoe. This mode has lowered the cost of making 
medium-priced shoes. It is a less satisfactory mode 
than the welt process. 

Measurement. Taking the dimensions of the foot for 
custom made shoes. The chief points of measurement 
are, the ball of the foot, the waist, the instep, ankle, 
and total length. 

Moulding. Shaping the sole to conform to the bottom 
of the last. 

Naumkeaging. Smoothing up the bottom of the shoe 
with fine sandpaper after buffing on coarse sandpaper. 

Oak-Tanned. Preserved by means of oak bark. Re- 
garded as the best tanning of sole leather. 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 391 

Oxford. A low-cut shoe in lace, strap, or button, made 

in men's, women's, and children's sizes. This style 

is said to have been first worn in Oxford, England, 

over three hundred years ago. 
Pasted Counter. Made of two pieces of sole leather 

pasted together. __ 

Pattern. Metal or cardboard model of form by which 

any part of the shoe upper is cut. 
Pegging. Attaching the outer sole with pegs. 
Perforating. Making decorative holes around upper 

parts. Also the term for the work done on the edges 

of the upper after skiving and folding. 
Polish. Ladies' and misses' front-laced, high-cut shoe, 

originated in Poland. 
Pressing. Applying a flat-press to heels and soles. 
Pulling Lasts. Removing lasts from shoes. 
Pulling Over. Drawing the upper over the last and 

tacking it into position. 
Pump. A shoe cut below the instep and having no 

fastening. 
Quarter. The rear part of the upper when a full vamp 

is not used. 
Rand. A strip of sole leather made thin on one edge 

and placed around between the heel and the sole, to 

fill empty space and balance the heel. 
Relasting. Putting lasts in shoes from which the 

original lasts have been drawn. 
Repairing. Filling cracks in patent leather on the 

finished shoe. Any cobbling work. 
Rolling. Passing leather between rolls to make it firm 

and durable. Also, polishing shoe bottoms on a roll 

bearing a brush. 



392 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Rough Rounding. Shaping the outsole to the last, and 
channeling also in the welt-channeled shoe. One of 
the hardest of processes. 

Royalties. Sums based on production paid by shoe 
manufacturers for the use of machines when hired 
of the machine companies or for protected processes. 

Rubber Cement. A powerful, quick-drying solution of 
rubber, often used in leather shoemaking and shoe 
repairing. 

Rubber Shoes. Footwear in considerable variety from 
the sandal to the hip length boot. The low rubber 
overshoe is the most common. Rubber footwear con- 
sists of fabric coated with rubber. Rubber heels and 
soles are used more and more on shoes of leather or 
fabric tops. 

Sample. In the shoe trade a single shoe to show the 
character of an entire lot. As a rule samples are 
made up by factories twice a year, in the spring and 
fall, and carried by the traveling salesmen on their 
routes. Shoes are then made in the factory from the 
orders received upon each sample. 

Sandal. A woman's or child's strap slipper. 

Screw Fastened. Having the bottom attached to the 
upper with wire screw nails, as in some heavy shoes. 

Shank. A strip of metal or other material used between 
the inner and outer sole, between the heel and the ball, 
to stiffen the sole of the shoe. Also, this part of the 
shoe. 

Shank Burnishing. Polishing the black shank part of 
the shoe with a hot iron. Shanks are finished in black 
or in colors. 

Shanking Out. Thinning and smoothing the shank part 
of the shoe. 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 393 

Size. The length measure of the shoe on standard 
widths. The length is expressed by numbers or the 
French cipher and the widths by letters. American 
and English sizes vary by one- third of an inch. The 
American size system runs from o to 13^, and then 
starts over again at 1." The infants' size runs from 
o to 5; children's from 5 to 11; misses', 11^ to 13^ and 
then to 2 in the second series; women's, from i\ to 8; 
little men's from 8 to 13^; youths', from 1 to 2 ; boys', 
from 2^ to si} an d men's from 6 to 12. Larger sizes* 
are made on special orders. 

Skiving. Cutting sole leather to a uniform thickness. 
Shaving upper leather, especially, to a thin edge, in 
the cutting or stitching department. 

Slipper. A name for low footwear, other than rubber, 
without special means of fastening to the foot. 

Slugging. Driving slugs, or short nails, in heels. 

Sneaker. A rubber-soled canvas shoe for out-door wear. 

Sock Lining. The lining which covers the McKay insole. 

Soft Tips. Having no box toe under the tip. 

Spies and Sole Leather. The pieces of heavy leather, 
mainly, from neat animals and used in the soles of 
shoes. 

Sole Laying. The preliminary process of attaching the 
out-sole in position for stitching, nailing, or pegging. 

Sorting. The process of arranging out-soles or upper 
leather by grades. 

Spat. An English term for Gaiter. 

Split. A layer of a hide which has been cut into 
thicknesses. 

Spring. The deviation from a straight line at the toe 
or arch of a shoe. 

Stamping. Putting size and width on the inside of the 



394 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

shoe, or the name on the bottom, or marks on the 
carton. 

Stay. A piece of leather used to strengthen a part or 
seam. 

Stitch Separating. Marking indentations between 
stitches to make the stitching conspicuous. 

Stitched Aloft. Sewed without channeling, so that the 
stitches show on the bottom. The name comes from 
the manner of the holding of the shoe in the process, 

• bottom up. 

Stock Keeping. Caring for stock in storage, following 
sales, and keeping a supply on hand. The manu- 
facturer must know how his styles are selling and how 
large his supply must be to keep ahead of his trade. 
Accurate and proper stock keeping is very important 
in shoe manufacture. 

Stripping. Cutting hides into strips wide enough to 
make soles of a desired size. 

Style. The shape, model, or material determined by 
standards in use or in fashion, or by forms which 
manufacturers desire to put upon the market. A 
particular pattern or design, applying to the shoe as a 
whole or to any part which may be given special 
distinction. 

Tan. From the Norman-French word for oak bark. 
A yellowish brown color given by the bark used in 
tanning, finished without applying special colors. 

Tanning. Converting hides and skins into leather by 
astringent acids or mineral substances. 

Tap. An outer half sole. 

Tempering. Softening leather in water. 

Tip. The toe piece stitched to the outside of the vamp. 



TERMS USED IN SHOEMAKING 395 

Often of different leather than that of the rest of the 

shoe, as " patent tip." 
Tongue. A narrow piece of leather placed beneath the 

lacing or other fastening of a shoe. 
Top. The part of the upper above the vamp. 
Top Facing. The leather or band of cloth around the 

inside of the shoe top. 
Top Lift. The outer piece of leather in the heel. 
Top Stitching. Sewing across the top and down the side. 
Treeing. Shaping the shoe ; smoothing it in the treeing 

room. 
Trimming Cutting. Cutting stays, facings, and other 

small parts of the shoe upper. 
Turned Shoe. A woman's fine shoe, of flexible sole, 

with upper stitched to the sole wrong side out, the 

shoe being then turned right side out. One of the 

three chief methods of shoemaking at the present time. 
Turnover. The gross amount of sales in comparison 

with the gross amount of stock. 
Upper. A collective term for the parts above the sole 

and heel of a shoe. 
Vamp. The front or lower part of the upper. A 

" cut-off " vamp extends only to the tip. A " whole 

vamp " extends to heel without a seam. The vamp 

is the most important part of the upper and should 

be of the best leather. 
Vamping. Sewing the vamps to the top. 
Viscolizing. A patent method- of making sole leather 

waterproof by treating it with oil emulsions. 
Welt. A narrow strip of leather sewed to the upper and 

insole, having the edge of the welt extending outward 

so that the outsole can be attached by sewing through 

welt and outsole around the outside. This is the 



39.6 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

most modern and best method of shoemaking. " Good- 
year Welt " is a welt sewed by the Goodyear welting 
machine. 

The three chief kinds of sewed shoes, from methods 
used in making, are the welt, the McKay, and the 
turned shoe. 

Welt Beating. Flattening out the welt, after sewing. 

Welting. The material used for the welt. Also sewing 
the welt to the shoe. 

Wheeling. Running a corrugated wheel around the 
edge or bottom of a shoe, to give finish or to imitate 
stitching. 

Width. More properly the girth of the ball, waist, and 
instep of the foot or last. Widths vary in quarter 
inches of these measurements from " double narrow " 
to " double wide," through the series of sizes. 



SHOE AND LEATHER BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 

Allen, Frederick J. Opportunities for the Employ- 
ment of Handicapped Men in the Shoe Industry. 
Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, 
New York, 19 19. 

Bassett, Sara Ware. The Story of Leather. The Penn 
Publishing Company, Philadelphia, 19 17. 

Bennett, Hugh Garner. The Manufacture of Leather. 
Constable and Company, Ltd., London, 1909. 

Bolles, Albert S. Industrial History of the United 
States. The Henry Bill Publishing Co., Norwich, 
Conn., 1878. 

Boot and Shoe Recorder Publishing Company. The 
Shoe and Leather Lexicon. Boston, 1912. 

Burlington Publishing Company, Ltd. The Tech- 
nology of Boot and Shoe Manufacture. London. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Depart- 
ment of Labor. Employees' Welfare Work. Mis- 
cellaneous Series, No. 4, Washington, 19 13. 
Industrial Survey in Selected Industries in the United 
States, 19 1 9. Washington, D. C. 
Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe 
Industry. Wages and Hours of Labor Series, No. 4, 
1890 to 1912; No 13, 1907 to 1913; No. 19, 

1 Note. — The literature dealing with the shoe and leather in- 
dustries is comparatively limited. It consists mainly of a few 
brief technical treatises, popular books and pamphlets, and 
statistical studies. Foreign books in the field present chiefly 
technical information upon manufacture. 

397 



398 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

1907 to 19 14; and Bulletin of the United States 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 260, 1907 to 1918. 
Washington, D. C. 

Women in the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachu- 
setts. Bulletin No 180. Washington, D. C. 
Workmen's Compensation Laws of the United States 
and Foreign Countries. Workmen's Insurance and 
Compensation Series, No. 5, 19 14, Washington, 
D. C. 

Dooley, William H. A Manual of Shoemaking and 
Leather and Rubber Products. Little, Brown, and 
Company, Boston, 1912. 

Dreier, Thomas. The Story of Three Partners. United 
Shoe Machinery Co., Boston, 1912. 

Evans Arthur L. Correct Shoe Fitting. Retail Shoe 
Salesmen's Institute, Boston, 1920. 

Gannon, Fred A. Shoe Making Old and New. Fred A. 
Gannon, Lynn, Mass., 191 1. 

Gold, Guy D. The Shoe City Reader. The New 
American Association, Brockton, Mass., 1913. 

Golding, F. Y. The Manufacture of Boots and Shoes. 
Chapman and Hall, Limited, London, 1902. 

Hadaway, J. B., and Kaven, M. B. Modern Shoe 
Manufacture. American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers, New York, 19 13. 

Hanson, William C, and Walcott, William W. 
Hygiene of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massa- 
chusetts. State Board of Health, Boston, 1912. 

Hatfield, C. B. Boot and Shoe Patterns. Superin- 
tendent and Foreman, Boston, 1899. 

Hazard, Blanche Evans. Organization of the Boot 
and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts before 1875. 
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 192 1. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 399 

Hill, Herbert, and Yeoman, Henry. A Manual of 
Boot and Shoe Manufacture. Boot and Shoe Trades 
Journal, London. 

Jacobsen Publishing Company. Hide and Leather 
Year Book. Chicago. 

Jorissen, Dr. Franz. Die Deutsche Leder — und 
Lederwaren Industrie. Text dreisprachig: deutsch, 
englisch, franzosisch. Druck and Verlag: Vere- 
inigte Verlagsanstalten Gustav Braunbek und Guten 
Verg — Druckerei Akt.-Ges., Berlin, 1909. 

Massachusetts State Board of Conciliation and 
Arbitration. Annual Report for ign. Public 
Document No. 40, Boston. 

Munson, Edward L. The Soldiers' Foot and the Mili- 
tary Shoe. Agents U. S. Cavalry Association, Fort 
Leavenworth, Kansas, 191 2. 

Nichols, Fred Hammond, Compiler. The Building of 
a Shoe. Thos. P. Nichols and Son Co., Lynn, Mass., 
1912. 

Plucknett, Frank. Introduction to the Theory and 
Practice of Boot and Shoe Manufacture. Longmans, 
London, 19 16. 

Proctor, H. H. The Making of Leather. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, New York, 191 5. 

Quimby, George F., and Paull, Charles H. English 
of Leather Making: Industrial Lessons for Adult 
English Classes of Tannery Workers. The Associ- 
ated Industries of Massachusetts, Boston, 1919. 

Retail Shoe Salesmen's Institute. Shoemaking. 
Boston, 1920. 

Rogers and Atwood Publishing Company. American 
Shoemaking Directory. Boston, Annual. 



400 THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Shaw, A. W., Company. The Library of Factory 

Management. 6 volumes. Chicago, 191 5. 
Storm, Donald T. Fifty Lessons in Advertising. Boot 

and Shoe Recorder Publishing Co., Boston, 191 1. 
Swaysland, Edward J. C. Boot and Shoe Design and 

Manufacture. Joseph Terbutt, London, 1905. 
Unemployment. American Labor Legislation Review, 

Vol. IV, No. 2, New York, May 19, 1914. 
United Shoe Machinery Corporation. Footwear of 

Soldiers. Boston, 1914. 

Goodyear Welt Shoes: How they are Made. 

Boston, 191 1. 

Handbook of Shoe Factory Engineering, Boston, 

1916. 

Primer of Boots and Shoes, Boston, 1914. 
Wage-Earning Women in Stores and Factories. 

Vol. V, Report on Women and Child Wage-Earners 

in the United States. Senate Document No. 645, 

Government Printing- Office, Washington, 19 10. 
West, Frank L. How to Repair Shoes. Tuskegee 

Normal and Industrial Institute. Alabama, 191 2. 



SHOE AND LEATHER JOURNALS 

American Review of Shoes and Leather. Philadelphia. 

American Shoemaking, weekly. Boston. 

Boot and Shoe Recorder, weekly. Boston. 

Coast Shoe Reporter, monthly. San Francisco 

E-J Workers Review, monthly. Endicott, Johnson 

Company, Endicott, N. Y. 
Hide and Leather, weekly. Chicago. 
Shoe and Leather Facts, monthly. Philadelphia. 
Shoe and Leather Reporter, Weekly. Boston. 
Shoe Findings. Chicago. 
Shoe Repairer and Dealer, monthly. Boston. 
Shoe Retailer, weekly. Boston. 
Shoe Topics, weekly. Boston. 
Superintendent and Foreman, weekly. Boston. 
Weekly Bulletin of Leather and Shoe News. Bellows 

Falls, Vt. 



401 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX 



Acid-tanned, 381 

Additional departments in a 

large shoe factory, 245, 246 
Adjustments, 381 
Advertising, development in 

shoe industry, 28 
Age distribution of wage 

earners, 282, 286 
Aloft, 381 
Anatomic, 381 
Ancient shoes, 3, 4 
Antinoe, city of, 4 
Apprentice in last century, 6 
Arch, 38*1 

Askew Shoe Company, 349 
Assembling, 381 ; department, 

148, 149; positions, 149 
Associations, 32 
Astringent acids, 82 
Auburn, 25 
Automatic machines, 286; effect 

on worker, 172 
Automobiles, 85 

Backstay, 381 
Back strap, 381 
Bal, 381 
Ball, 382 

Bark tanning, 82 
Barring machine, 172 
Beading, 382 
Beard, Thomas, 5 
Beating out, 382 
Bellows tongue, 382 



Belting, 382 

Bench-made, 382 

" Bend," 88, 382 

Binder, 45, 79 

Binding, 13, 45 

Blackball, 382 

Blacking the edge, 382 

Blake, Lyman R., 45, 59. 
118 

Blind eyelets, 168, 382 

Blind nailing, 218 

Blocking, 382 

Blucher, 163, 383 

Bookbinding, 85 

" Boom " period, a, 23 

Boot, 383 

Boston, 24, 25 ; as center of 
shoe trade, 24; in boot and 
shoe findings manufacturing, 

37i 
Boston Continuation School, 

310 
Boston School Committee, 309 
Boston Shoe and Leather Con- 
tinuation School Course, 309- 

314 

Bottom filling, 383 

Bottom finishing, 383 

Bottoming department, no; 
statistics, 235-244 

Bottom parts of shoe, 182 

Bottom scouring, 383 

Bottom stock fitting, 182 ; di- 
visions, 183 



403 



404 



INDEX 



Box, 383 

Box calf, 93 

Box factory, 1 09-1 11 

Box toe department, no 

Breed, Ebenezer, 16, 17, 84 

Briggs, Frank R., 28 

Brockton, 24; rank in indus- 
try, 26 

Brogan, 383 

Broken arch, 383 

"Broken wrist," 221 

Brushing, 383 

Buckram, 383 

Buckskin, 93 

Buffing, 211, 383 

Burnishing, 206 

Burnishing machines, 206, 208 

Business departments of shoe 
manufacture, 104; propor- 
tion of workers, 104; chart, 
105 ; executive officers, 106 ; 
general offices, 106 

Business Employments, volume 
on, 104 

Business offices, 112 

Business organization, 21, 22 

Button, 384 

Button fly, 384 

Buttonhole department, 167- 
169; positions, 168, 169 

Cabaretta, 384 

Calfskin, 384 

Calking machine, 384 

Canvas, 86 ; reinforcement, 186 

Card cases, 85 

Carton, 254, 384 

Case, 384 

Celluloid, 86, 189 

Census of manufacturers, first, 

14; of 1909, 36; of 1914, 23 
Census statistics, United States: 

Boots and shoes, value for 



leading states, 33; table I, 
summary for leading cities, 
34; table II, general statis- 
tics, boots and shoes, 35; 
table III, general statistics, 
boot and shoe cut stock, 37; 
table IV, exports of boots 
and shoes, 38 ; table V, total 
exports of shoes from the 
United States, 40; table VI, 
general statistics, leather and 
its finished products, 100; 
leather, value for leading 
states, 101 ; table VII, im- 
ports of hides and skins, 102, 
103 ; table VIII, number of 
boots, shoes, and slippers 
made by each method of 
manufacture, 127; table IX, 
number produced by each 
method of manufacture in 
leading states, 128; table X, 
average wages per hour, 
weekly earnings, hours per 
week; by years; cutting de- 
partment, 151, 152; table XI, 
average wages per hour, 
weekly earnings, hours per 
week; by states; cutting de- 
partment, 153, 154; table 
XII, average wages per hour, 
weekly earnings, hours per 
week; by years; fitting or 
stitching department, 1 73- 
175; table XIII, average 
wages per hour, weekly earn- 
ings, hours per week; by 
years; fitting or stitching de- 
partment, 176-178; table 
XIV, average wages per hour, 
weekly earnings, hours per 
week; by states, fitting or 
stitching department, 179- 



INDEX 



405 



181 ; table XV, average wages 
per hour, weekly earnings, 
hours per week; by years, 
sole leather department, 193, 
194; table XVI, average 
wages per hour, weekly earn- 
ings, hours per week; by 
states; sole leather depart- 
ment, 195; table XVII, aver- 
age wages per hour, weekly 
earnings, hours per week; by 
years ; lasting department, 
228-231; table XVIII, aver- 
age wages per hour, weekly 
earnings, hours per week; by 
states; lasting department, 
232-234; table XIX, average 
wages per hour, weekly earn- 
ings, hours pe"r week; by 
years; bottoming department, 
235-240; table XX, average 
wages per hour, weekly earn- 
ings, hours per week ; by 
states ; bottoming department, 
241-244; table XXI, average 
wages per hour, weekly earn- 
ings, hours per week; by 
years ; finishing department, 
257, 258; table XXII, average 
wages per hour, weekly earn- 
ings, hours per week; by 
states ; finishing department, 
259; table XXIII, average 
wages per hour, weekly earn- 
ings, hours per week; by 
years; other employees, 260; 
table XXIV, average wages 
per hour, weekly earnings, 
hours per week; by states; 
other employees, 261 ; table 
XXV, relative hours, wages, 
earnings in principal occupa- 
tions, by years, 276-279; 



table XXVI, average full time 
hours, and weekly earnings 
and actual hours with amount 
earned in single week, 191 8, 
280, 281; variation in number 
of employees, pay rolls and 
earnings, 282 ; table XXVII, 
sex and age distribution by 
leading industries, 1909, 284, 
285; table XXVIII, general 
statistics, boot and shoe find- 
ings, 379 
Central administrative offices, 

113 

Chamois, 92 

Channel, 385; cementing, 214; 
laying, 206, 214; lifting, 214; 
screwed, 384; stitched, 385; 
turning, 385 

Channeler, 195 

Channeling, 185 ; machine, 185 ; 
illustration, 204 

Chemist, 272 

Chicago, 24, 25 

Chrome-tanned, 385 

Chrome tanning, 83, 97 

Cincinnati, 25 

Cities leading in production of 
shoes, 24-26, 34 

Civil War, 60, 84, 371 

Clicking, 385; department, 357; 
machine, 64, 144-146; illus- 
tration, 14s 

Closing on, 385 

Closing and staying department, 
162-164; positions, 164 

Cobbler, 36; early, 5; travel- 
ing, 12 

Collar, 385 

Colonial, 385 ; times, value of 
shoes in, 9 

Coltskin, 94 

Combination last, 385 



4o6 



INDEX 



Congress, 16; gaiter, 385 

Continuation school classes, 
Boston, 309-314 

Contract system, 19-21 

Cooperative courses, 306 

Copeland, George, 50 

Copper toe, 385 

Cordova, 4 

Cordwainers Technical College, 
356 

Counter, 123, 188, 199, 385 

Counter department, 188, 199 

Counting, Marking, and Skiving 
department, 146-147 

Cover sewer, 224 

Cravenette, 386 

Creasing vamp, 386 

Crimping, 386 

Cripple girls, 159, 162, 165, 167, 
169 

Crop, 386 

Cross section of a Goodyear 
welt shoe, 119; of a McKay 
sewed, 120; of a standard 
screwed, 121; of a pegged, 
122 

Cushion sole, 386 

Custom-made, 386 

Cutter, 14, 141-144, 195 

Cutting Board, 142 

Cutting department, time and 
pay statistics, 149-154 

Cutting room, 140-144 

Cut-off vamp, 386 

Cut-sole industry, 98, 99 ; il- 
lustration, 98 

Cut-sto:k industry, 36 

Dagyr, John Adams, 6 

Day sheet, 134, 136; typical, 135 

Designer, pattern, 74, 76, 79; 

assistant, 79 
Destouy, Auguste, 47, 118 



Detail in shoe manufacturing, 
importance of, 129-131 

Dickerson, Philemon, 84 

Dieing, 386 

Dieing out straps, 148 

Dies, 145 

Dinking, 386; machine, 139 

Disabilities, effect of on shoe 
worker, 300, 301 ; adaptation 
of machinery to, 302 

Dom Pedro, 386 

Douglas, William L., 29 

Dressing, 386 

Dry hides, 94 

Dust, danger from, 299 

Early shoemaking tools, 14 
Edge setting, 386; machine, 207 
Edge trimming, 386 
Efficiency engineer, 271, 272 
Efficiency methods, 271-272 
Embossing, 91, 252, 3S6 
Employees, sex division of, 262 ; 
division of processes among. 
263; division among depart- 
ments, 264 ; proportion in 
business offices, 264 ; variation 
in number, 282; records, 284; 
average earnings, 276-279 
Employment conditions, 261- 

305 
Employment department, 106 ; 

manager, 104 
Enamel leather, 90 
Entering shoe factory, 267 
European War, 85 
Evans, Arthur L., 57, 58 
Evans, Owen D., 311 
Executive officers, 106 
Experimental department, 30$ 
Export trade, 25, 38, 39 
Eyelet, 386 
Eyeleting, 168 



INDEX 



407 



Fabric, 86, 386 

Facing, 387 

Factories, first shoe, 17 ; modern, 
110-112; typical, 112; il- 
lustrations, 113, 114, 115, 
116 

Factory departments of shoe 
manufacture, 108-110; chart, 
iog; additional, 245-246 

Factory hours, 21 

Factory management, chart of, 
107; officers, 106, in; mana- 
ger, 76 

Factory offices, 106, n 2-1 13 

Factory service and office ser- 
vice, 108 

Factory system, organization, 
21, 22 

Fairs, shoe and leather, 27 

Fair stitch, 387 

Filler, 387 

Findings, 387 

Finish, 387 

Finishing department, 109, no, 
112, 245-250, 358 

Finishing processes, 207-209 

Finishing, Treeing, Packing, and 
Shipping departments, 245- 
261; statistics, 257-261 

Fitting, 387; department, no 

Fitting room, 155, 387 

Foederer, Robert, 92 

"Followers," 216 

Foreman, 22, 140, 148, 149, 159, 
162, 164, 165, 168, 307 

Forewoman, 270 

Form, 387 

Foxing, 387; department, 164- 
165; positions, 165 

French National School of Agri- 
culture, 349 

French size marking, 388 

Furniture, 85 



Gaiter, 388 

Gang room, 196 

Gangs, 19, 196 

Gang system, 227 

Gem insoles, 388 

General manager, 104 

General offices, 106, 112 

Glidden, Charles, 61 

Gloves, 85 

Golf shoe, 388 

Goodyear channeling machine, 

185 
Goodyear, Charles, 58, 62, 63, 

118 
Goodyear welt, 117, 119, 388; 

stages of manufacturing, 123, 

124; production, 124-129 
Gore, 388 

Grading, 388; machine, 78 
Grain leather, 88 
Green hides, 94 
Gun metal, 93 

Hadaway, J. B., 301 

Half-sole, 3 88 

Hanan, John H., 29 

Hand cutter, 141-144 

Handicapped men, employment 
of in the shoe industry, 299- 
305 

Hand processes, 286 

Haverhill, 26 

Heel, 388 

Heel breasting machine, 223 

Heel builder, 190 

Heel department, 189-191 ; pro- 
cesses, 190, 191 ; positions, 191 

Heeling department, 216-221; 
slugging, 218; trimming, 219; 
"heel-breasting," 219; scour- 
ing, 219; positions, 221 

Heeling machine, 61 

Heel making, 190 



4o8 



INDEX 



Heel seat, 389 

Heel seat nailing, 204, 205, 214; 
rounding machine, 205 

Heels, fastened by pegs, 43 

Heel scouring, 389 

Heel shaving, 389 

Hemlock tanned, 82, 96, 97, 389 

" Hideite," 86 

Hides and skins, tannery divi- 
sions of, 87, 88; imports, 99, 
102, 103 

Howe, Elias, 58 

Howe sewing machine, 45 

Humidifiers, 221 

Indenture paper, 6-9 
Industrial education in shoe 
manufacturing, report, 307- 

3ii 

Ingalls, Francis, 84 

Inseam trimming, 389 ; machine, 
201 ;" illustration, 200 

Insoles, 182-184, 389 

Inspecting, 252, 389 

Inspector, in sorting depart- 
ment, 138 

Instruction of operators, 56 

Instruction Staff, U. S. Train- 
ing Service, 33 2-333 

Ironing, 252 ; uppers, 389 

Joyce, Joseph L., 52 

Kertland, Philip, 5 
Kid, varieties of, 90-93; calf- 
skin, 92, 93 
Knapp, George A., 367 

Labor, distinction between capi- 
tal and, 17; division of in 
factory, 1 7 

Lace, 389 

Lace shoe, 123 



Lace stay, 389 

Lapstone, 44, 389 

Last, 66, 390; shaping of, 66; 
material, 67; devices for re- 
ducing, 71 ; block, 71 ; Arnold 
hinged, 71; storage, 72; 
maker, 73 ; standardization, 
78 

Lasting, 390 

Lasting machine 48; illustra- 
tion, 197 

Lasting department, 196-200 ; 
positions, 200; statistics, 228- 

234 

Last lathe, 69; use of, 70 

Last-maker, 66, 73 

Last-making, 66-73 ; hand, 68 ; 
machine or lathe, 68, 70; 
modern, 68; model, 70 

Last pulling, 212 

Laws, ancient shoe, 10, 12 

Leading industries, statistical 
comparison, 284-285 

Leasing system, 53, 57 

Leather, 82-103 ; its nature, 82 ; 
tanning, 82, 83; American 
manufacturing, 84; increasing 
shortage, 85 ; substitutes, 85, 
86, 98; divisions of in shoe 
manufacture, 89; a side of, 
89 ; varieties of upper, 90-94 ; 
side, 94; sole, 94-98; oak, 
hemlock, union, 96, 97; used 
for various purposes, 99 ; gen- 
eral statistics, leather and its 
finished products, 100; 
tanned, curried, and finished, 
value for leading states, 101 ; 
imports of hides and skins, 
102, 103 

Leatherboard, 86, 189 

Leather sorter, 136-138 

Leveling, 206, 390 



INDEX 



409 



Lewis, J. B., 29 
Libraries, 290 
Lift, 390 
Lining, 390 

Lining and cloth cutting sec- 
tion, 139, 140; positions, 

140 
Lining department, 157-1S9; 

positions, 159 
Lining insertion, 216 
Lining sorter, 138 
Linoleum, 189 
Local associations, 32, 33 
Local War Pension Committee, 

358 
London Cordwainers' Company, 

5, 6 
Loose nailing machine, 62 
Low-cut, 390 
Lynn, 5, 6; home of industry, 

24, 26 
Lynn Independent Industrial 

Shoemaking School, 314-326 

Machine operations, number of, 
65 

Machine operators, stitching 
room, 172 

Machinery belting, 85 

Machines, number used in shoe 
making, 41, 42; possible im- 
provements for handicapped 
workers, 299-305 ; for shoe 
repairing, 360 

Machine shoe repairing, learn- 

. ing, 365 ; earnings, 366 

Machine tool industry, 375 

Maine, 24, 25 

Making department, 1 09-1 10, 
112, 196-227; divisions, 196; 
processes, 197; work in, 226, 
227; gang system, 227; statis- 
tics, 228-244, 357 



Manchester, 25 

Massachusetts, number of fac- 
tories in, 24; North Shore, 

25; leadership, 26 
Massachusetts State Board of 

Health, report for 1912; 294- 

299 
Mathies, Robert, 45 
Matzeliger, Jan, 50 
McKay bottoming department, 

210-216; processes, 211-216; 

positions, 216 
McKay, Gordon, 45, 58, 60, 61, 

63, 118 
McKay insole department, 183, 

184; positions, 184 
McKay sewing machine, 45 ; 

stitching process, 213, 214; 

sewed, 390 
McKay shoe, 117; illustration, 

120; production, 124-129 
Means, James, 29 
Measurement, 390 
Measuring upper leather, 136 
Mechanics, 55 

Medical attendance, 290, 292 
Methods in shoe manufacturing, 

1 1 7-1 28; per cent of each in 

total production, 124 
Middle Ages, 3 
Milwaukee, 25 
Missouri, 24 
Moccasin of the American 

Indian, 5 
Model grader, 79 
Modern shoe factory, the, no, 

112; illustration, 115, 296 
Monotony of shoemaking, 286- 

290; offsets to, 288; efforts to 

lessen in German factories, 

289; in American factories, 

290 
Moulding, 390 



4io 



INDEX 



Nailed shoe, 117; production, 
124-129 

Naphtha, danger from, 298 

National Boot and Shoe Manu- 
facturers' Association, report, 
307-311 

National Leather and Shoe 
Finders Association, 371 

National Shoe and Leather As- 
sociations, 32 

National Shoe and Leather Ex- 
position, 27, 28 

National Society for the Pro- 
motion of Industrial Educa- 
tion, 308 

Naumkeag buffing machine, 208 

Naumkeaging, 390 

New England Shoe and Leather 
Association, 25, 33 

New England, production, 25, 
26 

New Hampshire, 24, 25 

New York, 24, 25 

Nichols, John Brooks, 59 

Nicking, 148 

Novelties, 85 

Number and divisions of parts 
to be stitched, 156, 157 

Number of processes in shoe 
manufacturing, 130 

Oak tanned, 96, 390 

Office manager, 104 

Ohio, 24 

Oil cloth, 86 

Ooze, 93 

Operating a complicated ma- 
chine, S3 

Operations, number of, 41 

Opportunities for handicapped 
workers, 304 

Order, action upon receipt of, 
132, 133 



Outer sole, 187, 188 

Outer sole department, 187, 

188; positions, 188 
" Outside cutter," 142 
Oxford, 163, 391 

Packing department, 109, no, 
112, 253, 254; positions, 254 

Paper mill, 375 

Pasteboard, 189 

Pasted counter, 391 

Patent leather, 90, 248, 249 

Patent Office, United States, 41 

Patents, 304; on shoe machin- 
ery, 41 ; on shanks, 376 

Pattern, 391 

Pattern boy, 79 

Pattern designer, 74, 76; ma- 
terial, 77; model, 76, 77; 
maker, 79 

Pattern-making, 74-81 ; depart- 
ment, 76; positions, 79 

Patterns, 74; illustration, 75; 
sample, 76; factories, 76; 
number, 77; standardization, 
78; storage, 79; price, 80; 
placement for cutting, 143 

Peg, wooden, 43, 44 

Pegged shoe, 117; illustration, 
122; production, 124-129 

Pegging, 391 

Pegging machine, 44 

Pennsylvania, 9, 24 

Perforating, 161, 391 

Piece and time payment, 273 

Pocket books, 85 

Polishes, 373, 391 

Polish shoe, 165 

Porter, William, and Sons, 45 

Power, use in shoe manufacture, 

53 
Power grader, 79 
Power machine operating, 172 



INDEX 



411 



President, 104 

Pressing, 391 

Printing department, 109, no, 
246 

Problems of handicapped 
workers, 304 

Processes, number of in making 
ordinary shoe, 41 ; best pay- 
ing, 273 

Production by methods of 
manufacturing, 124-129 

Promotion, 267 

Pulling lasts, 391 

Pulling over, 391 

Pulling over machine, 52, 64, 
108; illustration, 199 

Pumps, 156, 391 

Putnam shop, 14 

Quality man, 187, 271 
Quantity man, 187, 271 
Quarter, 166, 391 

Rand, 185, 391 
Randing, 185 
Rebellion, War of, 84 
Receipt of order, action upon, 

132 
Recreation work, 292 
Reinforced insoles, 185, 186 
Reinforcement, 163 
Relasting, 391 
Relief Fund, 293 
Repairing, 391 
Retail Shoe Salesmen's Institute, 

Boston, 347, 348 
Revolution^ 14, 371 
Rickerman, Isaac, 5 
" Roadmen," 55 
Rochester, 25 
Rolling, 190, 391 
Rolling machine, 44 
Roman shoes, 3 



Rose, William, 84 

Rough rounding, 203, 204, 392 ; 
machine, 204; illustration, 204 

Royalties, 392 

Royalty stamps, 60; illustra- 
tion, 56 

Royalty system, the, 61 

Rubber, 86; factory, 375; heels, 
375; cement, 392; soles, 392 

Russia calfskin, 93 

Salesman, traveling, 74 

Sales manager, 76 

Sample, 392 

Sandal, 3, 392 ; ancient Egyp- 
tian makers, 3 

Sanding machine, 207 

Sanitary conditions, 294-299 

Schools and courses for shoe- 
making, 306, 307 

Scope of industry, 34 

Screw fastened, 392 

Seasons, 265, 266, 282 

Sex and age distribution of 
wage earners by leading in- 
dustries, 282, 286 

Shank, 392 

Shank burnishing, 392 

Shanking out, 392 

Shank soler, 224 

Sheepskin, 94 

Shipping department, 109, no, 
112, 254-256; positions, 256 

Shoe and Leather Association 
of New England, 32 

Shoe and leather fairs, 27 

Shoe brushes, 375 

Shoe buttons, 375 

Shoe dressings and polishes, 373 

Shoe factory, attitude of early 
shoemakers towards, 21 

Shoe factories, numbers of, 23, 
24; number in 1914, 34 



412 



INDEX 



Shoe findings industry, 370-379; 
manufacturing, in the United 
States, 370, 371; effect of 
European War, 372; articles 
included, 372; four classes of 
findings, 373; each finding a 
separate industry, 374; 
women in the industry, 374; 
division of employees,' 375; 
statistics, 3 79 

Shoe foreman, 269-271; assis- 
tant, 270 

Shoe industry, magnitude, 23- 
27; capital invested, 24; 
number of employees in 1909 
and now, 24; scope of, 34; 
training in, 306-359 

Shoe machinery, 41-54; inven- 
tion, 41 ; stages of develop- 
ment, 42; care, 55; replace- 
ment, 55; development, 58; 
standardization, 56, 65 ; in- 
vention, 62 ; leasing, 65 

Shoemakers, ancient, 3 ; first 
American, 5 ; Dutch, 13 ; 
itinerant, 12; New England, 
13; attitude to factory, 21 

Shoe making, American, 6; era 
of machine, 45 ; a trade, 
266 

Shoe manufacture, departments 
of, 104-116; power in, 53; 
highly specialized, 264-265 ; 
report upon industrial educa- 
tion in, 307-311 

Shoe repairing advanced by the 
War, 363-365 

Shoe repairing industry, 360- 
369; now a shop industry, 
360; statement from Ameri- 
can Shoemaking, 362, 363; 
earnings, 366; opportunities 
for handicapped men, 366; 



Trade Promotion Bureau, 
367-369 

Shoe repair shops, 360-362 ; 
illustrations, 361, 362; num- 
ber employed, 361 

Shoes, ancient, 3 ; Roman, 3 ; 
value in Colonial times, 9; 
English made, 16 

Shoe shank, the making of, 376— 
378; diagram, 378 

Shoe shop, of a century ago, 7 ; 
first, 1 2 ; old time beside 
modern factory, 15; of the 
Civil War period, 17 

Shoe superintendent, 104, 269- 
270; training for, 269; assist- 
ant, 270 

Shoe tag, 132; typical, 133 

Shoe tariff, 16 

Shop language, 380 

Shop of a century ago, 14 

Side, illustration of, 89 

Side leather, 94 

Size, 157, 393 

Sizes, standard, 77 

Skilled labor, movement of, 
267; securing, 268 

Skin showing how patterns are 
placed in cutting, 143 

Skiving, 147, 148, 393; de- 
partment 146, 147; positions, 
148 

Slashing, 185 

Slipper, 393 

Slugging, 393 

Sneaker, 393 

Social Clubs, 290 

Social service, 106 

Social service in the shoe fac- 
tory, 290; quotation from a 
Government study, 291-294 

Sock lining, 393 

Soft tips, 393 



INDEX 



4i3 



Sole laying, 202, 212, 393; il- 
lustration, 202 ; finishing, 206, 
207 

Sole leather department, 109, 
no, 112, 182-195; employees, 
191, 192; statistics, 193-195 

Sole leather department, U. S. 
Training Service, instruction 
in, 340; analysis of opera- 
tions, 344-346 

Sole leather parts, preparation 
of, 182, 183 

Sole leveling, 206 ; machine, 
206; illustration, 208 

Soles, 182 

Soles and sole leather, 393 

Sole sewing, 206 ; machine, 42 

Sorter, 136-138 

Sorting, 393 

Sorting department, positions in, 
138, 139 

Spanish War, 85 

Spat, 393 

Special Advisory Wage Board, 
359 

Specialists, 22 

Specialization in shoe industry, 
264; for foreign trade, 265; 
effect of on worker, 266 

Speed, 288 

Split, 87, 393 

Splitting machine, 183 

Spring, 393 

Stages in Goodyear Welt manu- 
facture, 123, 124; illustration, 
119 

Stamper, 79 

Stamping machine, 149, 393 

Standard screw, pegged, and 
nailed departments, 225, 226; 
positions, 226 

Standard screw, shoe, 117; il- 
lustration, 121 



States, leading, 25, 26, 33 

Statistics (see Census) 

Stay, 394 

Stitched aloft, 394 

Stitching department, 109, no, 
112, 155-181 ; processes, 155; 
number of parts, 156; divi- 
sions, 157; chart, 158, statis- 
tics, 1 73-181 

Stitching machine, operating, 
171, 172; illustration, 207 

Stitching room processes, varia- 
tions in, 155, 156 

Stitch separating, 394 

St. Louis, 25 

Stock fitting, 20 

Stock keeping, 394 

Stripping, 394 

Sturtevant, B. F., 44 

Style, 394 

Styles, in lasts, 66, 67 ; in 
patterns, 74, 76, 77 

Subsidiary factories, 99 

Suede leather, 90, 91 

Superintendent, 22, 104, 307 

System, factory 17; quotation 
on contract, 19, 20; organi- 
zation in factory, 21-22; leas- 
ing, 53 

Tack puller, 224 
Tan, 394 
Tanneries, 84, 85 
Tanners, American, 84 
Tanning, 82-84, 96-98, 394; 

materials, 96 
Tap, 394 
Tariff, shoe, 16 
Teacher, 165 
Teams, 17, 19 
Technical Advisory Committee, 

359 
Tempering, 394 



414 



INDEX 



Terms used in shoemaking, ex- 
planation of, 380, 381 

Teutonic tribes, 3 

Textile industry, 375 

Thebes, 3 

Tillson, John, 371 

Time and pay statistics in cut- 
ting department, 153 

Tip, 394 

Tip department, 159, 162 ; posi- 
tions, 161, 162 

Tip repairing department, 248- 
250 

Toe and heel wiping, 198 

Toe boxes, 189 

Toe box department, 189 

Toe closing department, 170, 
171 ; positions, 1V1 

Tongue, 395 

Top, 395 ; facing, 395 ; lift, 395 ; 
stitcher, 166, 167; stitching, 

395 

Top stitching department, 166, 
167; positions, 167 

Tracey, Michael J., director 
Lynn Shoemaking School, 315 

Trade Advisory Committee, 
Great Britain, 354, 357, 358 

Trade Promotion Bureau, in 
shoe repairing, 367-369 

Training classes, 290 

Training of disabled soldiers in 
the shoe industry in foreign 
countries, 348-359; Canada, 
340; England, 349, 350; Ger- 
many, 350; France, 35°-353; 
Belgium, 350; Italy, 350; 
Great Britain, 353-359! 
Cordwainers Technical Col- 
lege of London, 350 

Training in the shoe industry, 

306-359 

Traveling salesmen, 74 



Treasurer, 104 

Treeing; 250, 395 

Treeing department, 109, no, 
250-252; positions, 252 

Treeing man, 252 

Trial shoe, 77; machine, 78 

Trimmer, 224 

Trimming cutting, 395 

Trimming machine, 200; il- 
lustration, 206 

Trimmings, 130, 149, 157 

Trowbridge, William F., 53 

Truer up, 79 

Trunks, 85 

Turned shoe, 117-123, 395; 
production, 124-129 

Turned shoe department, 221- 
225; lasting, 221-224; posi- 
tions, 224 

Turnover, 395 

Typical factory, the, 112-116; 
interiors, 113, 114, 116; il- 
lustration, 115 

Union Shoe Repair Company, 
Toronto, 349 

United Shoe Machinery Cor- 
poration, 4, 63, 64, 364, 

375 
United States Department of 
Labor, Training Service, 

327 
United States Patent Office, 41 
United States Training Service, 

Plan, 327-348 
Upholstering, 85 
Upper, 395 
Upper leather department, 108, 

109, 112, 129-154; chart, 

131; statistics, 151-154 
Upper leather room, 136 
Upper stitching machine, 42 
Upper trimming machine, 199 



INDEX 



4i5 



Vamp, 169, 39S 

Vampers, 167, 181 

Vamping, 169, 395; department, 

169, 170; positions, 170 
Variation in employment, 282 
Vice-president, 104 
Vici kid, 92 
Viscolizing, 395 

Wage chart, 282 

Wages and hours of labor, 273- 

282 
Welfare manager, 104 
Welt, 201, 359; sewing machine, 

62; beating, 201, 396; turn 

shoe machine, illustration, 203 
Welt bottoming department, 

201 ; positions, 210 
Welt finishing, 206 
Welting, 201, 396; machine, 43 



Welt insole department, 184- 
187; positions, 186, 187 

Welt method, distinctive feature 
of, 198, process, 201 

Wetting, 185 

Wheeling, 396 

Whitcher, Frank W., 364, 371; 
Company, 371 

Width, 396 

Williams Shoe Company, 349 

Willow calf, 93 

Winslow, Sidney W., 58, 59, 63, 
04, 303 

Wire sewing, 226 

Women, employed upon ma- 
chines, 263 ; in harder proc- 
esses, 300 

Wood Shoe Company, 349 

Wooldredge, John, 45 

World War, 25, 397 



